The DeLange Diaries

My Furniture Adventure

2010-03-30T12:22:00.003-04:00

So, you know how I said I got new living room tables for my birthday? Well, it all came in a few days after we ordered them, which was a lot quicker than they had told us. Yay! Micky and my sister were kind enough to ride with me into Flint to pick them up at the furniture store. We ended up doing a little other shopping and kind of got behind schedule (we had to have my sis back to meet up with her boyfriend at a specific time), so we were hoping by the time we got to the furniture store, we could quickly load the stuff in and be on our way.
Well, that wasn't the case...The loading man ended up wanting to tell me his life story overtop of blaring radio music, which he insisted is usually on the Christian radio, but not that day...He talked about his furniture in his home, the radio stations, the tv show "Undercover Boss", etc...I stood there for 1/2 hour listening to him. He was extremely nice, just talkative, of course, on a day when I needed to hurry. He opened up all the packaging and we looked at just the tops of the tables for scratches and dents. All looked great! So, he repackaged them back up and loaded them into the truck for us. I thought all was good (even though my sis was maybe fuming a little bit for now holding her boyfriend up).
We got the furniture home and Brad started putting it together- we just had to screw on the legs of each table...He put the sofa table together first and it looked beautiful!! I was beaming!!
At this point in time Halle and I ran up to pick up our hot, delicious, Hungry Howie's pizza for dinner. When we returned, Brad was snapping a bunch of pictures of the table, still in the box. Come to find out, the coffee table was completely broken underneath. The whole front of it was broken, and the drawers were broken. We called the store and they said they would order us a new one, but we could use the broken one until it came in. Brad said it wouldn't even work to be put together. We opened up the end table and thought all was good until we tried to screw the last leg on. It wouldn't stay tight. And when we flipped the bottom piece over (once the whole stinkin table was put together) we noticed a huge gouge...My heart sunk!
We called the store back up and they are now ordering us a new end table as well. I was very impressed with their attitude and helpfulness. The manager ended up giving us a $20 credit for gas money (we live 45 minutes away from this store).
We will hopefully get our new furniture this week. I am going to make them take out every piece and show me before we leave the store this time. Brad is also going to see about working a deal for the broken end table. It really isn't horrible, just a shaky leg and the scratch (which is covered up by our Ipod dock anyways). We didn't originally think we could fit 2 end tables in our living room, but it's looking like we can now. So, I might end up with another table throughout this whole mess anyways.
I will let you know how it goes!!
Also, good news! We sold the washer and dryer that was left at the house we bought on craigslist and Brad said I could use the money for whatever I wanted!! So...now the question is...What to buy? The rug I like at Target? New bedding? More decor for the living room? Getting my hair done? Fun activities for the kids over spring break?
Only 2 more days until spring break! It honestly can't come soon enough!

My Birthday

2010-03-24T13:06:00.005-04:00

My Birthday was this past Sunday! It was such a nice day, thanks to the most wonderful guy I know, my hubby. He let me nap while he cleaned, baked AND decorated the cake, figured out the decorations, and ordered the catering. I was incredibly impressed!

He invited over my in-laws and my family. Everyone could come except for my mom (in Chicago for work) and my borther (in medical school has no time for anything but studying).

Brad ordered Italia Garden's Mostaccoli Alforno, salad, and bread. There was quite a bit of confusion as after I checked my email on Sunday, I realized I had a 20% off catering coupon from Italia Garden's. Brad called to see if he could use it and ended up realizing that he had placed the order with the Italia Gardens that is WAY on the other side of town, not the one closest to us. They ended up being super nice about everything and even did all the calling for us to switch our order to the closer location. All was good, but Brad was sweating bullets for a few minutes. Everything tasted wonderful!!!

Halle and he made the german chocolate cake and Halle decorated it! I think it turned out really cute!

Everyone ate, laughed, talked, and watched some college basketball. We all jumped for joy when MSU made the last second 3 to win the game!!! (and we're not MSU fans, even though that's where my brother goes to medical school)

I got lots of gift cards to Hobby Lobby (Mom and Dad & Scott),

itunes (Andy & Todd), Marshall's (Jess),

a new Pandora charm for my bracelet (Al),

black shoes from Target (Halle), some much needed kitchen utensils (Parker), a glass vase made my Brad's uncle Jim DeLange and $$ (Mom and Dad D.),

and Brad bought me a new coffee table, end table, and sofa table for our living room!!!!!

I DEFINITELY got spoiled!!! Plus, part of my birthday gift from my parents was the tickets to see Beauty & the Beast a few weeks ago!!
I'm SO excited to go spend my gift cards and can't wait for my living room furniture to come in next week!!

It was another wonderful birthday for me! I am truly blessed and appreciate all the love my family poured on me to make my day special!

The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Go Calypso!

2010-03-17T13:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Halle performed in her class play, "The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Go Calypso." It was about a 25 minute long musical that her 2nd grade class put on. She was the "opener", in the chorus, a cheerleader, and a reader. She did a SUPER job!! We were very impressed with the production and with all the hard work this class did to put on such a good show.Thank you to her wonderful teacher, Mrs. L for her hard work and dedication to her students. We are SO happy got her for a teacher this year.

(I didn't take very many pictures because I videoed instead and Brad was on Parker duty--Just imagine a tropical themed Three Billy Goats!)

Beauty & The Beast

2010-03-05T22:03:00.003-05:00

Last weekend, my mom, Allyson, Amber, Halle, and I all went to see Beauty & the Beast (the Broadway show) for a girl's night out. It was also part of our birthday present from my mom this year.

We met at Olive Garden for dinner and then wasted a little time at the mall before heading to The Whiting to see the show. We had really good seats. They were center stage in the first balcony. So, we had a great view of everything.

The show was really good! Good singing, acting, and LOTS of humor!! I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes Disney! We had a lot of fun together!! The only complaint was the because of the people sitting behind us. It was an 8pm show, but they brought their little 2-3 year old daughter and she only lasted about 1/2 hour out of the 3 hour show. So, needless to say, they made A LOT of noise which was quite distracting and maddening.

It really made me want to watch the movie again. Beauty & the Beast was one of my favorite Disney movies growing up!

(Blogger is being weird right now and won't let me upload pictures. Will do so tomorrow)

Crazy Week

2010-03-04T11:13:00.002-05:00

This has been a crazy week for Halle (and us)!!

Monday:

*Halle had dress rehearsal until 6:45 at school for her drama club performance.

*I ran down to the mall with Jessica to use up a 40% off coupon at American Eagle. Got GREAT deals!! Like at $44.95 dress for $3.58, a $39.50 dress for $1.78, a $19.90 perfume for $1.06, and MUCH more!! It pays to shop the sale rack sometimes!! Mine looks like this, except is a light blue plaid

Mine is a lot like this, but it has a little white thrown into it too!

Tuesday:
* Halle had her drama club performance after school. Thankfully, her play was the second one, otherwise I think we would have been there all night. She was the "Horse" in the skit, "The Cat Who Walked Alone."

* I did a little shopping with Micky during the day- I didn't have to work which was really weird, but I think it's because it's the end of the trimester this week and teachers are busy finishing up report cards and exams, so they don't want to miss work.

We went to two cute, unique stores. Elements in Lake Orion has a lot of unique house and gift items. We didn't buy anything, but it would be a great place to find a gift for someone that you couldn't find at your typical stores. We also went to The Saltbox, which is actually within walking distance from my house and is AWESOME!!! I found a lot of cool home decor things I would like. They actually had some of the kitchen decor I already have, which was cool. Plus, I LOVED the fun music they had playing, and it smelled delicious in the store. I will definitely be going back!!

Wednesday:

* Halle's school had Family Fun Night, which highlights literacy in children. It was actually supposed to be last week, but we had a snow day on the day it was scheduled, so it made for a busy week at school this week. They had community vendors set up promoting literacy, the school book fair, age appropriate activities, and an ice cream social. It was nice, but I actually thought Halle's school last year did a much better job at putting one on. Oh well. I still bought both Hal and Parker a couple new books for our collection.

Gotta love David Shannon! My kids LOVE his books!

This one just looked cute! Thought Parker might enjoy it!

Halle begged for this book. She read the entire thing when we got home. She kept asking us NOT to fast forward through our DVRed American Idol, so she could read during the commercials. HA!

Thursday:

We don't have anything planned after school today and tomorrow is NO SCHOOL!! So, hopefully, we can get some things done around the house because I've let it go to shambles for the sake of all these school activities, and maybe to watch American Idol too!

Best & Worst Feeling (All in One Night)

2010-02-27T13:20:00.004-05:00

The other night, we decided to go to the mall with Allyson and Scott to do a little shopping. Since Allyson and I wanted to look in some girl stores, the guys and kids left and went to stores they would have more fun looking around in. BUT...When we met back up later on, Parker jumped out of his stroller, ran as fast as he could, yelling "Mmmoooommm" the entire way, and jumped into my arms and gave me the biggest bear hug ever!! It was THE BEST FEELING IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!! Nothing beats love from your kids!!
That same night, on the way home from the mall, we got a call from Jessica saying that someone was texting her from my phone saying "I think someone lost this phone." As soon as I realized I didn't have my phone, I felt horrible. It's like a part of you is missing and you don't know if you will ever see it again. All the pictures, texts, contact numbers, etc. I NEVER lose my phone, so it was really unlike me to have this happen. Brad ended up calling my phone and talking to the honest person that found it!! They were so nice!!! Since the mall was closed by the time she realized her daughter had it, she handed it over to a mall security guard and told them we would be down to get it. Since we live 40 minutes away from this mall, and we were almost home, we decided to just hold off until Thursday to go get the phone.
Thursday after work, my sister and I ran down to the mall to pick it up, only to sit and wait for 30 minutes until the mall security informed me that yes, my phone was turned in the night before, but, someone didn't follow protocol and THEY LOST MY PHONE!! They said they would tear their entire office apart to find it, but I knew that either #1. The threw it away #2. They gave it to the wrong person #3. One of their employees stole it.
Friday afternoon, Brad got the call that the phone was found. We don't believe their story that a random coat was turned in, and inside the pocket of the coat was my phone. What are the odds?? We think that one of their employees figured I wasn't coming to get it and took it home, seeing as how it is a newer phone, but felt guilty because we had called and talked to the management, and most of the employees were baffled as to where it went.
So, I guess they are shipping it to us. Let's hope it really is my phone. HA!!
So, all wrapped into one night was the BEST feeling and the WORST feeling I've had in a long time. I think I'd rather have more BEST feelings happen, than WORST!

Painting

2010-02-21T22:19:00.002-05:00

My life is consumed with painting! Why is it once you get started painting, you find that the entire house needs to be painted. We just moved into our new house a month ago, and although the walls were all a very neutral color, they were all scuffed up and dirty looking. So, I decided to start painting.

1. Micky and Jess helped me paint my kitchen a very neutral brownish-tannish color

2. I spent an entire Saturday painting my living room by myself a very neutral tan color

3. I've spent various evenings/days off painting the entryway (not the 2 story walls, just the walls I can get with a step ladder- the high walls will come later), & the little hallway with the pantry, coat closet, and basement door

4. I've started going up the stairway, but have stopped at the wall that is extremely high (haven't mustered up enough nerves to climb that high on the ladder yet)

5. I got the top of the stairway landing done

6. My dad helped me paint my front piano/computer room and the small 1/2 bath off the kitchen a greenish color

7. Painted the ceiling in the small 1/2 bath after a few mishaps by my dad (I still love you though Dad)

8. Brad helped me paint the front room AGAIN because I just didn't like the color. I LOVED the color in my 1/2 bath, but it didn't look right for the front room. So, I painted it again. It's now a much richer green color.

9. I spray painted 2 curtain rods that were left here by the previous owner. They were a brushed silver and I painted them a deep brown, as nothing that I have has any silver in it...Brown will look so much better.

And it's only been a month...

I think I have an addiction to painting now, although I believe it is what might be causing my extremely bad headaches everyday...I do love the look of freshly painted walls and now I can start decorating!!

Still to come in the real near future:

The 2 story walls

The entryway coming in from the garage

The rest of the upstairs landing

Halle's room

The kids bathroom

Still to come in the somewhat near future:

The laundry room

Parker's room (his room is already a nice blue color, so I'm not in as big of a hurry)

Still to come in the near future:

My bedroom- won't paint it until I get new bedroom furniture and bedding

My bathroom

The kids playroom

The dining room- need to get a nice dining room table first

AND this summer...We need to paint all the white trim on the house and the front door!!

(all of our life-savings is going to paint-It's crazy!)

Will post pics of rooms tomorrow

Ten

2010-02-19T09:26:00.003-05:00

Ten Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Painted the front piano/computer room
2. Painted the upstairs landing
3. Painted the small 1/2 bath off the kitchen
4. Painted the ceiling of the small 1/2 bath off the kitchen
5. Laundry
6. Made Easy Chicken for dinner-thank heaven for Crock Pots
7. Contemplated whether or not I like the color I painted the front room
8. Watched a little of the Olympics
9. Cleaned up the house a little as I have people coming over tonight
10. Showered 2 times!

Nine Things I'm Doing Today:
1. Working
2. Pick up Parker and Halle after work/school
3. Going out to my favorite Mexican restaurant, Sagebrush, with my favorite person, Brad
4. Going to a Phil Keaggy concert at church
5. Laundry
6. Cleaning up house
7. Figuring out dinner for kids and babysitter
8. Kiss my kiddies
9. Watch my DVRed Olympics

Eight Things I Am Doing This Weekend:
1. Hangout with Al, who is spending the night on Friday
2. Clean the house/paint?
3. Premier Design Jewelry Party on Saturday
4. Church
5. Relax
6. Taking Halle to get the stitches out of her ears
7. Go shopping for Halle and me an outfit to wear to "Beauty and the Beast" next Sat.
8. Grocery shop for the coming week

Seven People I'm Hanging Out With This Weekend:
1. Brad
2. Parker
3. Halle
4. Allyson
5. Mom-in-law, Micky
6. Scott
7. Erin B.-The girl hosting the jewelry party

Six Random Questions:
1. Could the Winter Olympics stay on for the remainder of the winter? I don't want them to end!2. Am I the only one confused at some of the Top 24 picks (especially the guys) on AI?
3. Will I ever be done painting? I starting to feel a little overwhelmed.
4. Would Spring get here already? I hate winter!
5. Is it time for lunch yet?
6. Will I win the GMC Terrain that Ellen is giving away today? I REALLY REALLY like the GMC Terrain.

Five Songs Playing On My Ipod:
1. Need You Now-Lady Antebellum
2. American Honey- Lady Antebellum
3. Say Hey (I Love You) -Michael Franti & Spearhead
4. Temporary Home- Carrie Underwood
5. I Run to You- Lady Antebellum

Four Things I Want To Buy:
1. Tables for my living room-Coffee, Sofa, End tables
2. Curtains for living room
3. Wall art
4. Valances for kitchen

Three Ramblings:
1. As a substitute teacher, it's always a boring day when the teacher leaves a video to show. Plus, you end up watching the same video four-five times (when you're in the high school). It gets old after a while. (Don't tell anyone, but I'm typing this up as I watch an episode of "Numbers" for the third time)
2. I wish I could hire a professional interior decorator to decorate my house. I want it to look like the PotteryBarn catalog, just for a fraction of the cost! I will admit that Target, my favorite store, has quite a few home decor items that look a lot like PotteryBarn stuff, but is WAY less in price! Thank you Target!!
3. I HATE my dry skin in the winter. I also HATE the price of good lotion. Why do I need to pay 10-15$$ to get a decent lotion for dry skin. It almost makes me just want to suffer through the itchy, dry skin instead of spending that much on a small bottle of lotion. I did buy some though, and it's still as dry as can be. Plus, my scalp is extremely dry. It doesn't matter what dry scalp shampoo I use, it doesn't take it away.

Two Blessings:
1. Brad and I both have jobs. Although they might not be the greatest jobs in the world, we are able to afford to live in a beautiful home and put food on our table. We are paying off all our debt and are starting to get back onto a "financial" track. We know we are every fortunate as many families are really struggling to find any sort of work. The Lord is definitely taking care of us!
2. We've got the best family in the world. Without them, we would definitely be in a pickle when it comes to having someone to watch our kids. I've got lots of family volunteers to babysit during the day (so I can work) and in the evenings (when Brad and I decide to go on a date). Today, my brother-in-law, Scott, has volunteered to show up at my house at 6:45am to watch the kids before school, take Halle to school, watch Parker while I'm at work, and then come back and watch both kids this evening for us. It's nice knowing a family member is willing to spend their entire day helping us out! Thank you to all my family!

One Favorite Recipe:
I will post my recipe from last night, as it is fresh on my mind:
Easy Chicken
(You can either cook this at 275* for 3 hours, or put it all in a crock pot and cook for 3-4 hours)
6-8 Chicken Breasts, can be cut into pieces
1 can Cream of Celery
2 cans Cream of Chicken
1 soup can of Milk
Parmesean Cheese
1 cup rice, uncooked

Mix everything together and put in 9*13 or crock pot. Sprinkle cheese over top.

"This is freaking me out"

2010-02-17T09:33:00.003-05:00

Those were the words that came from my sweet, little 2 year's mouth last night as he was heading upstairs to take a shower. I was a little unsure as to what he meant by it because he really enjoys taking showers in my shower because it is huge and has 2 little bench-like seats in it that he can sit on. He begged and begged us to let him take a shower last night, and when I said "yes" he jumped up and down yelling "woo-hoo!" It was like a child being told they are going to Disney World or something. As I sent him upstairs with Halle to start getting undressed, I hear "This is freaking me out" come from his little lips! I just about starting peeing my pants! He's such a crack up. After putting two and two together, I realized he didn't like the idea of going upstairs to take a shower without me or Brad going with him. He needed one of us to stand there while he showered (a.k.a. play in the shower). Hahahahahahaha!!!

Sickness, PLEASE go away

2010-02-16T09:51:00.000-05:00

For some reason, this winter seems to be hitting my family hard with sickness. As I fought off sickness all fall long, my kids are getting slammed with being sick constantly this winter. When one is sick, the other is healthy, and sometimes I've got two sick kids at the same time. It starts to tire me out, and I'm not the one blowing my nose, coughing, sneezing, and fighting ear infections.Parker has battled 3 ear infections since December. It doesn't help that he has always had problems with his ears since he was born. I mean, he has still never passed a hearing test! We have been seeing an ear specialist since December, and FINALLY, they have scheduled Parker to have a set of new tubes put in his ears and his adenoids out. The scheduled date of surgery is March 8! YAY!! Hopefully, this helps as just last night, he was screaming bloody murder and grabbing at his ear. We figured out the infection must have popped his ear drum and all the fluid came out-which I realized after seeing a bunch of gunk on his pillow and crusted around the inner edge of his ear. So...hopefully, the surgery will help take care of that problem. It can't come soon enough.

Along with ear infections, Parker's also battling a nasty cough and runny nose. We are keeping him on medicine to help aleviate some of the congestion. Halle has been fighting the same stuff too! She spent her entire Sunday on the couch, hacking up a storm. Her teacher won't let her go outside for recess this week as her cough is still really bad.

This has been going on for sometime now, with no end in sight. I think Parker believes everyone just takes medicine on a daily basis, because he is always begging us for medicine, like it's candy or something. He doesn't know a life without constantly taking medicine.

Winter AND sickness, I beg you to leave and bring us warm, sunny days and health! PLEASE!!

Snow Day

2010-01-08T13:29:00.002-05:00

Gotta love snow days!! We got 5 inches of snow throughout the night so school was closed today!!Brad still had to work, but the kids and I played outside for a couple hours this morning and now are watching the movie, Robots.

Tonight, I'm going to the movies with my sis to see Leap Year, and Brad is taking the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2!

Snow Days are the best way to start the weekend! Happy Weekend!

Back into the swing of things

2010-01-07T13:16:00.004-05:00

Well, reality set in this week as school and work started back up for most of us. I am very thankful to be working most days of the week, but boy when that alarm clock goes off in the morning, I DO NOT want to get up!!

I got started back into Zumba class on Monday nights. I love it a lot and am thankful our rec center doesn't charge an arm and a leg for classes! My arms have been feeling the pain all week though! Ha!

Halle started back into school and piano lessons. She's got a big weekend coming up with her 8th birthday on Sunday. We have lots of fun stuff planned for Saturday (and possibly Friday night too)! As fun as her birthday will be, I must admit a January birthday is difficult to plan and buy presents for. There isn't much you can do outside, unless you want to go sledding, and everything she wanted was bought for her for Christmas (and everything is picked over in the stores-all that's left is what people didn't want to buy for Christmas). I have just resorted to being REALLY creative, and I'm not sure how good I am at doing that! More to come on all our fun activities and celebrations later this weekend.

Parker is doing his normal routine-getting up, eating, playing, eating, watching movies, playing, playing some more, eating, and sleeping. HA!! He's growing so fast and talking more and more every day. We are slowing but surely starting the "potty training" routine, but I'm thinking it's going to be a while before it really works.

Brad is back to working, well, wait...He never stopped working! Ha!! He's loving his job, even with some of the issues that test his patience and sanity! We are extremely thankful he has a job as we continue to hear of other families really struggling right now.

We are still in the midst of buying a house!! The financial part of it is in the works now (not sure why it takes so long to sign a few papers!) We are hoping to close the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

My sister found out this week that she recieved 2 $1,000 scholarships to finish off her dental hygiene program. So, she will now be able to use that money to cover her state board test at the end of this semester! Praise the Lord!!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T20:00:00.004-05:00

We've made it to 2010!! It seems like just last year everyone was freaking out about Y2K, and now it's 10 years later!

I have realized I haven't done a very good job with my blog this past year. I think I was trying to blog about WAY too much on each post and throw in a bunch of pictures, which would end up taking me an hour to post one blog. I really don't have an hour every day to dedicate to blogging, so I found myself not blogging at all. I like the idea of blogging, not so much that millions of people (or even one person) will read/comment on it, but so that I have a memory book to look back on of my family's memories.
I have a bunch of posts from this past year that I wrote, but never posted because I was waiting to add pictures to it. I feel like I should finish those and post them, but I think I will just keep those in my archives and start fresh and anew for the new year!
So, here's my first post of 2010!! It's a recap of our Christmas vacation!!

Merry Christmas!! We spent Christmas Eve with my family! We all got spoiled!!Buzz Lightyear came to live with us Christmas morning!

We now have a singing sensation living with us! We spent New Year's Eve all singing karaoke!

Christmas Day with my hubby!

We went and saw Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Palace! They rocked out!!

We played in the snow!

Overall, it was a WONDERFUL break and we don't want it to end. Tomorrow is back to reality for most of us, and we aren't looking forward to it! Happy New Year!! May 2010 be the best year yet!!

Week in Review

2009-12-11T12:06:00.002-05:00

Well, this week flew by and I didn't get a whole lot accomplished. That could have been because I was sick with Strep Throat (again) for the majority of the week! I thankfully didn't have to work Tuesday, had to cancel work for Wednesday, and already had scheduled Thursday off due to Parker's ear doctor appointment.
Needless to say, there were some HUGE things that happened this week!!
1. 2 weeks ago Brad and I went house-hunting (for the 100th time) with our realtor and came across a house we absolutely LOVED!! We figured there was no way on earth we could ever get it, but we put an offer on it anyways. The bank called this week and said they accepted our offer!! WOOHOO!!! So, Brad and I are still standing in shock with our jaws dropped and are waiting for all the adendums to come so we can sign our life away!! Hopefully, we can move in in January!!
2. I got a little Christmas shopping done. After visiting the doctor's office on Tuesday and testing positive for Strep, I headed to the mall and got a few gifts bought. I know, I should have gone back home and crawled into bed, but I wasn't going to let my throat that was on fire stop me!! I spent all day Wed on the couch to make up for it!:0(
3. I finished a puzzle in 2 days! (That's whay happens when you can't work)It was only a 500 piece one and quite easy! I'm going to glue it together with puzzle glue and put it in a frame. It's a picture of two snowmen! I thought it would look nice hanging up for the holidays! My parents did this last year and it looks awesome!
4. Parker went to the ear doctor. Our insurance for him doesn't start until Jan 1, 2010, so I was planning on paying the bill to see the doctor this visit. Well, the doctor didn't end up charging me anything!! I think it helped that he knows my father-in-law and my father-in-law refers alot of his patients to him. Parker has fluid in his ears again, so it's looking like he might have to have set # 2 of ear tubes put in. We are doing a nasal spray for the next month to see if it helps. Just imagine-nasal spray and a 2 year old! Yeah, it's not going to be fun doing that every night!
5. I got some more done on Halle's homemade Christmas gift. I'm not saying anymore than that, as she tends to read my blog occasionally. Will post pics after Christmas!

That's about it! We have LOTS of shopping to do this weekend and I would really like to take the kids to see "The Princess and a Frog". Halle is spending the night at Bailey's to celebrate her 9th birthday, so we might not have enough time to cram it all in.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Congrats Nate and Lisa!

2009-12-06T19:52:00.005-05:00

This weekend was Nate and Lisa's wedding!! Dec 5, to be exact! Nate and Lisa have been dating for quite a few years and finally got hitched! Their wedding was at West Cannon Baptist Church in Belmont, MI (it's a suburb of Grand Rapids).

It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and it was nice celebrating with all of Brad's family that was there. Lisa was so pretty!!

They had a nice reception after the ceremony and the bridal party did fun entrances while being introduced in. It was cute! They also played a game during the reception. Every table had a paper on it and the table was to come up with a question to ask the bride and groom that the answer would either be "Nate" or "Lisa". Then they asked Nate and Lisa (with their backs turned away from each other) the questions, and they had to raise either a high heel (for Lisa) or a black shoe (for Nate) and see how many they could get right. It was quite funny!!

We had a good time and the whole extended family stayed the night at a hotel afterwards. The hotel had a pool, so some of the kids went swimming, and they also had a big room with tons of leather sofas and a projector screen, so our family took over that room and ate pizza and watched football on the big screen. It was a nice way to end the day!

We headed home today. It has snowed a TON in Grand Rapids, but once we were outside of the city, there wasn't hardly anything on the ground. We had two detours on the way home. One was in East Lansing to go eat at Brad's favorite- P.F. Chang's, and the other was to Best Buy to buy a new camera. We REALLY REALLY REALLY disliked our other camera!

Zumba

2009-11-21T08:50:00.003-05:00

I've been going to Zumba class at our local recreational center once a week. It's a lot of fun and you don't even realize you are working out. You do a lot of Latin rhythms and dance moves throughout the workout. I look like a complete idiot trying to get my hips to sway the way our instructor does, but I really don't care. The music is very lively and set to quick beats and usually really fun songs! If you are looking for a workout, I would highly recommend it.

New Moon

2009-11-21T08:35:00.002-05:00

I believe I've officially become a Twilight fanatic! Ha!! I read the books, loved them, but never felt like a fanatic like a lot of people I know. I mean, I haven't bought myself a "Team Jacob" t-shirt-which I am by the way-Team Jacob, that is. I told myself I wouldn't go to the movies this weekend because I didn't want to fight the crowds of screaming tweens that were there swooning over Robert Pattinson. Well, I withstood it for about 12 hours! On the way home from picking up Hal from school, I called my sister-in-law, Jessica, and asked if she wanted to go see it with me. I stopped by the theater and bought our tickets for the 9:45 showing. We got to the theater at 8:30 and ended up having to stand outside for an hour!! The line for the movie was SO long!! and it continued to grow!! We got decent seats, which was really the only thing I was worried about. I did not want to have to sit in the front row while I held my jaw closed after seeing my beloved Jacob without his shirt on. Yes, I know he's like 15 years younger than me! Haha!!
The movie was WAY better than the first one!! I can't wait for the 3rd movie to come out!!

A Little More About Me

2009-11-10T10:21:00.004-05:00

Here's a little more about me. I found this on someone else's blog and thought it would be fun to fill out!

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging?

I tend to be eating veggies and dip every time I get online to blog! I'm actually eating them right now! 2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?
My very practical answer would be my flat iron. My hair is so frizzy if I don't run heat through it every day. It makes a world of difference.

3. Beach, Mountains, or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?
I wish I could like on a mountain, overlooking a beach. That's probably asking a little too much though! The funny thing is I'll probably end up living on a farm-kinda. Brad and Halle really want to have horses one day. Horse manure reminds me of a farm, therefore, I would be living on one.
4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?
Putting clean clothes away. I don't mind doing laundry, but I hate putting the clean stuff away. It will usually sit in the laundry basket or in a pile in my room for a week before I finally will stick it back in drawers or in the closet.

5. Who do people say you remind them of?

My sister or my mom. People always said I look like my younger sister but lately I've been getting more of my mom. That is probably because I have highlighted my hair blonde and cut it shorter (just like my mom's).
(If I wasn't filling out this blog while on break at work, I could get on Facebook and copy a picture of my mom/sister on here so you can see what I'm talking about)

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying home with the fam?

I like a little of both. I enjoy socializing, but not when we are busy doing so every weekend. I do enjoy all getting into our pj's and snuggling on the couch watching a movie. That is my favorite of all time!

7. What's your all time favorite movie?

Sleepless in Seattle

8. Do you sleep in your make-up or remove it like a good little girl every night?

I hate sleeping with make-up on, but there have been times when I go to bed having forgotten to take it off. That's usually only when I fall asleep on the couch and Brad wakes me up to get in bed. I hate how my pillow feels the next day! For the most part, I do wash my face before bed.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?

I really want to learn how to quilt. I have no real reason why just that I want to make one. Maybe one of these days I will get the chance to learn.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?

I'm good at remembering really random things. I can remember odd numbers, facts, movie trivia, etc. that a lot of other people can't. I tend to see the details of things and remember those more than the whole thing.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?

I thought he was really cute! We met in 9th grade and started dating in 11th grade. Now that we are older and have been married 8 years, I'm attracted to him because he's a hard worker, a good dad, he loves me, and he still looks pretty darn cute!

12. What is something you love to smell?

Men's cologne. Right now Brad is wearing Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue!

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.

I assume the worst in most situations. I also try to assume what others are thinking before I find out from them what they are thinking. It bothers me that I do it and I am working hard at trying to stop.

14. When you have extra money, what's the first thing you think to do with it?

Spend it on the kids!

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?I'm more of a chuckler. I don't silent laugh but I'm not one of those obnoxious laughers that you can hear across a packed, noisy restaurant either.

The things that make me laugh the most are stories that my brother tells of our childhood (he remembers so much more than I do), things my kids do, and The Office. If I could ever stay up past 10pm (I'm too exhausted anymore to stay up any later than that), I tend to laugh more the tired-er I get. I can't remember the last time I laughed REALLY REALLY hard!

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?

Depends on what I'm shopping for. If I had to buy everything at one specific store, it would be Target.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?

Study God's Word, Sleep, Play with my kids, Shop, Crafts, Scrapbook, Hang out with my sister, Clean, Decorate a house, Read, Blog, Try new recipes, Travel...Can you tell I need more time in a day?

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?

I shop the sale racks at every store and I shop at stores where things are priced reasonably. I like to spend my money on my kids and home decor, so as long as I stay away from stores where those things are present, I tend to save my money better. I will admit, since we are really serious about buying a house now, I haven't bought much lately. I am asking for gift cards to home decor stores for my Christmas present though!!!

19. Who is your favorite character of all time?

This is a hard question! I'll have to think about it.

20. Would you want to be famous?

No. I think you get more perks with being famous, but I have no desire to be. I look at families like Jon & Kate Plus 8 and see how stardom ruined their family. I hope that I can make an impact on people's lives, but not at a "famous" level. You are under too much scrutiny and pressure to be the way the world thinks you should be.

What to Offer?

2009-11-10T09:45:00.002-05:00

We are putting an offer on a house today!

We have been looking at homes for the last few months and have finally found one we both really like and would like to buy! It's a forclosed ranch-style home on 4.5 acres. It's in a nice neighborhood, only about 10 minutes from my in-laws (Mom-in-law is babysitter during the week so we needed to stay close to her). Since it was a forclosure, we went over the house quite a few times, just looking around, peeking in the windows, but yesterday we finally got our realtor over there with us so we could actually step inside and look around. It's the perfect size for us and doesn't need a whole lot of work to actually be able to live in it (unlike some of the other forclosures we've seen). It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, with a basement that was finished, but all the drywall had to be torn out due to mold (which is something we would look into further if we get the house).

It's a great deal BUT there are 3 other offers on it already. The bank is taking offers up until today, so hopefully, ours will be the last one in before the cut-off time.
I really don't want to get my hopes up but it's hard not to. What is hard is figuring out how much to offer when you know others have put in offers as well. You don't want to lose it because you underbid, but you don't want to offer WAY more than everyone else and lose out on a good deal. We talked to our realtor and my father-in-law, and have come up with a figure we think is good (hopefully, the best because that's what the bank's looking for).

Why do they make this so stressful?? I was hoping no one else had seen the house on the list and we would be the only ones interested, but it doesn't look like that's how it's going to happen.

So, pray for us this week as we figure it all out. I know that God has awesome things in store for us, and if this is the house for us, He will allow us to get it. If not, we'll keep looking.

(I obviously would love to post pics of the house but will wait until we know it's ours before doing so).

Can you buy Amoxicillan by the gallon?

2009-11-06T11:27:00.004-05:00

My dad always jokes about the amount of Amoxicillin we took as kids. He always wondered if you could buy it by the gallon because with three kids in the house, we were constantly being prescribed it.Now, I'm asking the same question. Halle is sick! It really was inevitable seeing as how the majority of kids (and adults too) that live around here have been sick lately. I've been sick a couple of times now. Parker had an ear infection just last week (with which he was prescribed Amoxicillin).

Yesterday, Hal woke up complaining of a sore throat. She acted perfectly fine though, so I sent her to school because it didn't seem like that big of a deal. Even last night, she complained of it hurting a little, but she acted normal. Well, this morning, she went to the doctor (Grandpa) and she tested positive for Strep Throat!! So, now I've got two kids taking the blessed antibiotic!(Parker's taking it because he's very likely to get strep and he still is having ear issues).

I might even take a swig of it later tonight to be on the safe side. Ha!!

I think I might suggest my gallon idea to the makers of the drug. For families of more than one member, it really would be quite helpful.

Chicagoween 2009

2009-11-02T12:01:00.002-05:00

We diverted from the normal this year and took the kids to Chicago for Halloween weekend. (The "normal" being staying home and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood). My mom is living in the suburbs of Chicago for a while due to work, so we figured if we had a free place to stay and park, we had better take this opportunity while we had it.

It all worked out wonderfully, except that I was extremely sick and the weather was crappy. Allyson got to go with us and Brad scheduled his work so he could go too! (Isn't it nice being the one that makes the schedule?)
We left Thursday evening after everyone got done with work and school. (Yep-I allowed Halle to miss a day of school on Friday, but we did a lot of educational things that day anways, I promise) We packed up the Denali (thanks to Mom D. for allowing us to use her car, otherwise, we would have never had enough room), and took off. About 20 minutes into the ride, I realized we forgot two very important items. # 1-The STROLLER!! How we expected a 2 year old to walk around a huge city for 2 days is beyond me! So, we stopped at Target and Brad schmoozed the girl at the counter to give him the umbrella stroller for the sale price, even though the one he got technically wasn't on sale. We also forgot #2: The CAMERA!! This is what happens when the most organized person of all of us (me) is extremely sick and isn't thinking clearly before we leave the house. So, we debated over buying a new camera (which we will do at some point in time soon), but opted to just use Brad's camera on his phone and my mom's camera.

After all that drama, we were on the road. Driving into the city late at night is the way to go, as we hit absolutely no traffic. We got to my mom's about 9:30p.m. Chicago time (we gained an hour by going). We somehow crammed 6 of us into a tiny, one bedroom apartment. Surprisingly, we all had our own space and it worked out well.

Friday, we woke up, ate breakfast, and took the train into the city. We took the kids to the Field Museum (see, I told you we did something educational) for the majority of the day. Sidenote: Teachers-You get in free to the museum if you have something indicating you're a teacher! I got in free!! (a $23 value)They have Diamonds on exhibit there right now. That was really cool!!! There were a bunch of security guards and vaults that the diamonds were in. Wow!! They were all so beautiful!! This one was on display there. The picture doesn't do it justice. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the diamonds.

After we were done at the museum, we took a taxi down to the shopping area. Halle wanted to go to The American Girl store (of course), so we did that for a while. We went to eat at our favorite pizza place in Chicago, Giordanio's, got some Garrett's popcorn, and then took the train back home. I was completely exhausted and was getting a fever by this time. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it another day. Thankfully, I have a father-in-law who is a doctor and he called me in a prescription.

Saturday- We went back into the city for the day. The kids wore their Halloween costumes and we went to Franken Plaza for the Halloween festivities going on there. They had the Midnight Circus performing, so we watched the show (twice).Halle made a craft and got a balloon animal. Parker was asleep the entire time!! He missed out, but we were glad he was getting a little nap. We actually ran into some people we knew!!! Who would have thought we would sit down next to our friends from high school in Chicago over Halloween weekend? So, that was a nice surprise!!

The entire time we were there, Halle kept begging us to take her for Chicago-style hotdogs, so after the show, we headed to Portillo's for lunch. The are the BEST!!

We then spent the rest of the day shopping!!! Parker went to the Disney Store and got a Woody and a Buzz Lightyear doll and Mimi ("Grandma" in Parker's language) bought him a Woody and Buzz shirt. Can you tell what movie Parker's into right now? Halle went to American Girl and got her doll's ears pierced and Grammy bought her a new outfit for her doll. I went to Macy's and Mom bought me a pair of Coach tennis shoes!! My mom was spoiling us all!! Thanks again, Mom!! She also bought Allyson a pair of boots, so we all got something except for Brad (sorry Honey).

We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to my mom's place, so we just went and ate at Panera Bread for dinner. It tasted good and warm, which was nice considering it was FREEZING all day!!

Sunday morning consisted of us all packing up and leaving. We had to get back for Brad to be at work by 4. So, it was a quick goodbye and we headed home.

Not much happened on the way home, but we did stop at a gas station and guess who was there in her big bus??? Jennifer Hudson!!! Brad actually talked to her agent and saw Jennifer's sister inside the gas station. I guess all the workers were going nuts!! We saw her dogs being walked in the little grass area too!! We didn't get a glimpse of Jennifer herself, but it was still cool to know that she was in her bus just a few feet away from us!

We had an awesome time this weekend. It went by way too fast!! Halle keeps talking about how much fun she had, even though she didn't get to go trick-or-treating. She said "It's just candy...Chicago is awesome!"

Happy 2nd Birthday Buddy!!

2009-08-13T22:08:00.001-04:00

Today, August 13, 2009, my little guy turned 2!!! I can't believe how quickly 2 years have gone by. 2 years ago today, I was making my way to the hospital at 6am, getting induced, having my husband tell the nurses we would have this baby before lunch, and at 12:15pm (exactly at lunch time no doubt), little Parker Bradley DeLange was born!! I thought he was the cutest boy ever then, and now he's grown and become even cuter (if that can even happen). Seeing as how I leave tomorrow for a wedding in Kentucky, we aren't doing a whole lot to celebrate Parker's birthday today. I did make chocolate cupcakes to have tonight, but his real birthday party will be next Saturday!!

Since I really don't have many birthday pictures to post yet, I thought I would give some updates about Parker at this point in his life.

* Weighs 27lbs

*3ft tall

*Wears a size 5 diaper (almost could be in a size 6)

*Wears size 18 month in pants/shorts (and they have to be pulled tight with the elastic)

*Wears 2T or 24 month size shirts

*Wears size 7-8 shoes

*Has brown eyes (still)

*Has white blonde hair right now (the sun bleaches it out)

*Wakes up at 7ish every morning screaming "EAT! EAT!"

*Favorite foods: Pizza, Bananas, Hot Dogs, Grapes, Oranges, Fruit Snacks, Waffles, Rice Krispies, Mac N Cheese, SALAD!! (yes, he loves salad) with Ranch Dressing, Cheeseburgers

*Favorite Drinks: Juice of any kind, water

*Favorite Restaurant: McDonald's

*LOVES: Football, horses, basketball, baseball, playing with Tula, soccer, running, swimming, sidewalk chalk, coloring

*Still sleeping in his crib

*Has asked to be put on the toliet a couple times but hasn't done anything on there yet (at least he knows what it's for and is interested in it)

*He loves copying Halle

*He loves tackling Halle

*Is talking like crazy now--says all sorts of words, not all of them are the clearest, but we understand what he's saying most of the time

Happy Birthday Buddy!!! I love you with all my heart!!

Our New Family Member

2009-07-28T21:49:00.004-04:00

Well, I haven't blogged in about a month, (not because I haven't wanted to, but because I stay up too late doing fun things and run out of time to blog), but today we added a new member to our family and I couldn't miss out of this huge moment on my blog!!

About a 3 weeks ago, the DeLange's St. Bernard, Diesel, had to be put down due to lymphoma. He was only 5 years old, but it came on really fast and there was nothing that could be done. After that, Brad and I started searching for a possible puppy for our family. We searched high and low, and I kept preferring the Golden Retriever- they are the cutest when they're a puppy and when they are older. We found a litter that was in Grand Rapids (about a 2 hour drive from our house) and we called about them. They only had 1 male and 1 female left (out of 8 puppies)and the ad had only been out 3 days. We chose to put a deposit down on the female without seeing her or anything. The owners sent us some pictures of her, so that's what we got to look at until today. We had to wait 2.5 weeks before we could go and pick her up because she wasn't old enough to leave her mama.

Well, today, Tula turned 6 weeks old and was allowed to come home with us. We drove all the way to the other side of the state and picked her up! The people who owned her had already named her Tula, and we liked the name so much, we kept it!

Here she is!!!!Halle's first time holding herParker just loved her!! I love her face! I think she likes me!!Tula just wanted to sit and snuggle with Parker in his car seat the whole way home. Parker would only last 3-4 minutes at a time before he wanted her off of him. She didn't want to budge!! Halle got her snuggled and she fell asleep!
Tula was wiped out!

Halle is beyond excited about having her very own puppy! She has been at her side all day long!!!

We are so excited about the joys Tula is going to bring to our family!! We love her alot already, except I think we're in for a long night as Tula won't quite crying in her cage!!!! HAHAHA!!

A Wedding to Celebrate

2009-07-03T22:10:00.007-04:00

Today my mom, sister, and myself held a bridal shower for my cousin, Lauren, who is getting married this August. We held a brunch today because Lauren could only be here for this weekend, my Aunt was in from Arizona, and tomorrow is filled with activites for the 4th, so it was the only time we could all do it. It wasn't a huge shower because my cousin lives in Kentucky (that's where the wedding is going to be), and her parents are missionaries in the Dominican Republic, so there really aren't many people besides family that would come.

We made blueberry muffins, quiche, hot chicken salad, fruit skewers, mini weiners, and mini-cheesecakes, brownies, and creme puffs. Everything turned out great!!

The Table- We got everything at Hobby Lobby (my absolute favorite store) and The Dollar Tree. We were quite impressed with how everything turned out. (The colors of her wedding are lime green and dark blue)

The place setting- Halle was in charge of the napkins, and she went online all by herself, googled "How to fold napkins" and found and site that showed you how to do it. She put the bows on and everything!! I'm super impressed and now believe my 7 year old would be a great party planner! The BRIDE!!!! Mother of the Bride-Aunt Mel, Bride- Lauren, Sister of the Bride- Rachel We played 2 games. This one was putting on knee-high nylons with oven mitts on your hands. It was quite funny!! Lauren, Aunt Mel, Rachel, & Grandma Allyson and Me Hal and I My Mom and Lauren Lauren opening her gifts. This is the only one I could show because all the others were intimate apparel. Leave it to Aunt Michelle and Grandma to buy her something practical like silverware!! Here was the whole group that was there. Mother of the Bride-Aunt Mel, Bride-Lauren, Aunt Michelle, Grandma, Me, Allyson, Halle, Sister of the Bride-Rachel, and Mom.

Halle was asked to be Lauren's flower girl today! She is quite excited!!!

We wish Lauren and Daniel all the best as they embark on this new journey together. Congrats!!

Up-North

2009-07-01T21:12:00.014-04:00

We spent the last 3 days up north, at my parent's friend's cabin. They had a nice little cabin on Wiggins Lake in Gladwin, MI, and allowed my parents to have us all up there for the week. We could only go for a couple days, but it was still a nice getaway. It was typical Michigan weather, and was cold (highs of 60) and rainy, but we still had a lot of fun. We boated, fished, ATE LOTS OF FOOD, played games, relaxed (I think we all took naps at random times throughout our stay), and sang songs around the camp fire.

Parker, Grandma, and Halle

We went on a boat ride in the pontoon boat! It was a really nice lake, but it did start raining on us. Thankfully, there was a canopy cover, so we didn't get too wet!

Parker steering the boat They had 2 swings, which the kids LOVED! Parker spent the majority of our two days there in that swing. It was in the shape of an airplane and it would go really high! He would just laugh!! It was SO sweet!! (You will notice the cabin is in the process of being re-sided) About 2 seconds after Halle cast her first worm into the water, she caught a small Large Mouth Bass!!! We were all shocked! She wouldn't have anything to do with touching it or taking it off the hook, but she was quite excited! Parker even went fishing with his own pole. He only had a bobber on the end of it, but he enjoyed reeling it in. Parker got in the lake for a while, even though it was quite cool out. He LOVED it!! The water was quite warm, and he could splash and flop in the water. There was also a slide that went right into the water, so he slid down that a bunch of times. We made bon-fires both nights we were there. I realized I am really good at roasting marshmallows!!! I toasted them perfectly brown without burning them. Everyone was quite impressed!!! They started the 4th of July Sparklers a week early. They had lots of fun running around with them, but Parker ended up touching the hot part of one of the sparklers and burnt his finger. We didn't even realize his finger was all blistered up until the next day. He never once complained about it hurting.

We had lots of fun hanging out with my parents. We wished we would have had warmer weather, so we could have went tubing and fishing more, but we enjoyed lots of laughs and scaring Halle with the "Sea Creature of the Black Lagoon" story. (She begged Papa to tell her a scary story around the bonfire). We ate SO much food, even enjoying a pie from the local bakery.

Halle didn't want our stay there to end and ended up going up further north with my parents to pick up the motor home that they inherited from my grandparents. She was going to get to ride in the motor home all the way back home tonight! I haven't heard from her yet, but I'm guessing she had a lot of fun!

Could we fill this day with any more fun?

2009-06-18T09:03:00.000-04:00

On the last day of school, Halle's teacher sent home a caterpillar in a container. The students had been learning all about butterflies and caterpillars, so Halle knew what all was going to happen. The very next day (our first day of vacation), Halle's caterpillar put itself in it's chrysalis! I had absolutely no clue how long it was supposed to stay in there, so all the research I did concluded that they stay in the chrysalis about 2 weeks.

Well, obviously, my research was wrong or our butterfly emerged too soon, because only 6 days later, Halle rushed me her container to show me that there was a butterfly in it!!

We put the container outside and figured the butterfly would fly away when it was ready. We hope it is still living, flying freely!After all that excitement, we met up Allyson for a little shopping. We had nothing we had to buy, but just enjoyed walking around and looking. We stopped for a little while to let the kids play in the big play area! They had a lot of fun! Parker LOVED it!!!

It just so happened that my good friend, Brooke, was in town from South Carolina visiting her parents and they live only 10 minutes away from the mall we were at. My sister is also good friends with Brooke's sister, Brittany (who was also in town visiting), so we called and decided to go see them after shopping.
Because it was all last minute, we ended up showing up to their house right when they were heading out on their boat. We jumped on and enjoyed 1.5 hour ride out on the lake! We didn't have our swimsuits or anything, but we got to relax and enjoy the day on the water. (Halle and Parker were quite bummed they couldn't jump in the water or ride the tubes-I felt horrible).

Halle, Parker, and Allie (Brooke's baby-6 months old)...Parker doesn't know what to think about Allie

Brittany, Bradley, and Bethany (Brooke comes from a family of 7 kids, all with their names starting with a "B")

Brittany, Allyson, Halle, Parker, Me, Brooke, and Allie

Brooke and I have been best friends since we were in 9th grade! I can't believe we're both married (we share the same anniversary too!) and have kids!!

It was such a fun-filled day!!!

Playing in the Rain

2009-06-18T00:31:00.001-04:00

On Wednesday, it POURED rain all day!! I don't remember the last time it continuously poured all day long without stopping!! Parker kept looking out the window saying "Wet" and "Rain", so Brad asked him if he wanted to go out in it. He was quite hesitant to go at first, but after getting a little wet (and a little coaxing from Uncle Todd), he went out. Uncle Todd decided to go play in the rain with him!! They had fun, but boy, was the rain cold!!!Um, I'm not so sure about this... I'm all wet!!!
(Halle was spending the night at Bailey's house, so she wasn't here to be a part of the fun)

School's Out for the Summer!

2009-06-16T21:33:00.004-04:00

Last Wednesday was the LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! All the teachers stood outside singing "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye" and waving their hands as all the buses drove off with the students. I spent the last 5 weeks of the school year teaching at Seaton Elementary in the 6th grade Language Arts class. Their regular teacher was off on maternity leave, so I got chosen to fill in for her.

I spent my 5 weeks there teaching poetry and the fantasy genre. The big project for the end of the year was for the students to write their own fantasy story. I also read "Ella Enchanted" aloud to the class! They loved it!!! We watched the movie the last 2 days of school.

Not only did I get to teach, but I also made some good friends with the parapro in my room, Kathy, and the 6th grade Math teacher, Becky. Both were huge helps to me and I'm so happy I got to work with them.

I got to be a part of a big step in 67 kids lives. Going from elementary school to the "big" junior high is quite a big ordeal. I got to take part in the school's Life Skills carnival, the 6th grade class picnic, and Field Day!! On the last day of school, I got to give out Honor Roll awards to my students at the Awards Ceremony. I hope I made some sort of impact on these guys, even though I was only there for 5 weeks.

Halle finished 1st grade this year as well!!! I can't believe I have a 2nd grader on my hands now!! WOW!! We were extremely proud of her as she got a "1" in every category on her report card ("1" stands for "advanced").

She came home with "Creative Writer" award, the "Got all A's on her spelling tests" award, and holds the record for girls on the "Sit and Reach" in gym!! We were totally impressed!! She also brought home a caterpillar in a container, and it has since put itself in it's chrysalis. So, we're expecting it to become a butterfly sometime within the next 2 weeks.

2 days after school was out, she came down with a horrible stomach flu, and she missed her very first piano recital!!! We are planning on having everyone over to the house soon and we will have our own recital just for her!! We can't have all her hard work going to waste!!

SUMMER is here and we're totally enjoying it!!!! We've swam every day, played outside, rode horses, shopped, grilled out, and stayed in our pj's til noon (and we've only been on break for 6 days).

I am TOTALLY enjoying my break!!!!

Blog Hiatus

2009-06-13T00:00:00.002-04:00

For the two people who might actually read this blog every now and then, I have been on a "Blog Hiatus" lately. Not because I have wanted to, but because my busy life has made me. I have been in a long term substitution position for the last 5 weeks of the school year, and although I don't get paid much more, I have had to do all the work of a "real" teacher. It's been a blast and I will blog more about it soon, but it has taken all my time away from blogging. When I could have been sitting here at the computer typing away, I was grading papers and creating lessons (which I love to do by the way, except after you've read and graded 67 fantasy stories written by 6th graders, it's not so much love anymore).
You might be asking why I haven't written on my blog since school got out 2 days ago, and that would be because I have been flat on my back on the couch with stomach issues. The first night, I had an allergic reaction to peanuts. I finally figured out why my stomach always felt like tight knots after eating at Logan's-which is the only restaurant we go to that serves peanuts. I had horrible pain in my stomach all night long, but it thankfully passed by Thursday morning. Thursday afternoon, however, my stomach started to feel nauseaus and queazy. I never threw up, however, my stomach was very upset all night long and into this morning. As my stomach was finally starting to not bother me as much today, Halle announced that she was not feeling well. She slept in bed the entire day today, complained of the same feelings I had had the night before, and ended up missing her very first piano recital tonight because of it.
So, that's been the start to our vacation. That's also the reason I've been away. I'm hoping summer will give me some time to blog again, as I have missed so much lately.

The Detroit Zoo

2009-05-28T22:52:00.006-04:00

Since we had a nice, long weekend, we decided to take the kids to the Detroit Zoo. We went on Sunday so that Allyson, Andy, and Scott could come with us (the other family members had other plans for the day so they didn't join us). We went to the early service at church and then headed to the zoo afterwards. It was the PERFECT day for the zoo!! The sun was shining, it was cool in the morning and warmed up in the afternoon. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day!!Halle outside the Butterfly House
Inside the Butterfly House. Parker just pointed and said "eye" (butterfly)

It was inside the Butterfly House that our camera decided to break. The lens broke and the whole camera jammed up on us. Thankfully, I was able to get it to come back on, so we were able to get some more pictures of our day at the zoo. But we couldn't use the screen and we couldn't zoom, so we didn't as great of pictures as I would have liked. I guess we're buying a new camera this weekend!!

Scott and Parker looking at the animals

In front of the famous fountain
Isn't she beautiful?
Why is it every animal was either asleep or wouldn't look our way?? I think they know where they are and are sick of humans staring at them all the time...

The Peacocks rule the roost at that zoo!!! They were walking around everywhere!!!
Aunt Al, Halle, Parker, and Uncle Scott Here's what Uncle Andy did while we were there...Talking to his girlfriend!Parker's favorite exhibit-Rhinos!! We ended up buying him a rhino stuffed animal! He could have watched these guys do absolutely nothing all day long!! They must have really fascinated him.
Halle with her favorite animal-Zebra!! We took a bunch of pictures of the zebras in hopes that we can put some up in her zebra-themed bedroom!!

Parker with his ultimate favorite animal--Horses!!!!

Halle bought a stuffed zebra!!

Parker was zonked out in his wagon!!! He was SO tired!!

Before we left the zoo, we all sat down for one more picture (minus me). We ended up going back home, dropping Halle off at Bailey's to spend the night, and met up with everyone again at bd's Mongolian BBQ. We all love that place!!! We were all starving and ate all our dinner, plus we all split 2 huge desserts!!

This week in tv

2009-05-23T16:24:00.003-04:00

This was a BIG week in televsion!
"Americal Idol" finished up and KRIS ALLEN won!! I was so happy he took the victory over Adam. Way to go, Kris!

I do agree with most the world that Adam will in fact be really successful even though he lost, however, I won't be one to rush out and buy his music.

"Dancing with the Stars" also finished up this week. I really liked the last 3 "stars", so I didn't really care who won. I was surprised though that Shawn Johnson won over Melissa and Gille. Obviously, she has a huge fan base from the Olympics. They were saying on the radio that every time an Olympic athlete has competed on the show, they have won.

On Tuesday night, "Glee" premeired on Fox. It was SUPER good!! I loved it and can't wait for it to start up in the fall again. It's my new favorite show.

The NBA playoffs have been on all week long, so all the men in my life have been glued to the television watching the games. I can't comment much on it because I don't waste my time watching them, so I have no clue who is winning/losing. But, I do want to mention that Parker loves watching the games and every time a player shoots the ball, he either says "Missed it" (when they miss) or "Made it" and claps his hands (when they make it). It's adorable!!
Although this isn't a tv show, we went and saw "Night at the Museum-Battle of the Smithsonian" last night! It was really good and funny. It lived up to our expectations. I would definitely recommend it! It also made me really want to go to Washington, D.C.! The Smithsonian looks awesome and I have never been to D.C. before!!

Little People & Strawberry Turnovers

2009-05-20T11:13:00.000-04:00

For Halle's first Christmas, one of her gifts was the Fisher Price Little People doll house. It came with the people, furniture, and it even made all sorts of noises when you pushed different buttons inside the house. She played with all her Little People stuff a ton. She even got into the Little People movies, and would watch them all the time. Now, as she has gotten older and no longer plays with them, she has passed all the Little People toys down to Parker, and he is loving them. Between the two of them, I think they have every single Little People toy out there. They have the house, barn, airplane, Noah's Ark, town, campsite, playground, amusement park, race track, and all the people, vehicles, furniture, animals, etc. that goes with it. It's a bunch of stuff!!!

When they set everything up, it takes up a lot of space!!!

Where's Parker?

Parker enjoys playing with them and actually Halle plays with him a lot too. I have been known to get down and play with them too! It's fun!

What I love about Little People is that the people are so cute, they are the perfect size for little kids, and everything is made of plastic or rubber, so nothing can break very easily. We have had a lot of the pieces for 8 years and they still look brand new.

I am planning on keeping all the Little People toys for my grandkids one day. I know, that's forever in the future, but I think kids 20 years from now will enjoy them just as much as my kids are enjoying them now.

Halle is my dessert fanatic! She LOVES making desserts. The other day she got out her cookbook, wrote the entire recipe out, took it with us to the grocery store, and found all the items she needed to make Strawberry Turnovers. After dinner, she and Brad made them for everyone. They were delicious!! I now deem Halle my official dessert maker!!

Happy Birthday Dad

2009-05-17T20:58:00.003-04:00

On Friday, May 15th, it was my father-in-law's birthday!! Like he said, "I'm turning 35, just backwards!" So, here's wishing him a wonderful birthday and year ahead!!

On Friday, we all went in to "Logan's" to eat. It's his favorite restaurant. We had decided we were going to actually celebrate his birthday on Sunday (today) so that everyone could make it, however, we went ahead and told our waitress that it was his birthday, so she ended up having him stand up in the middle of the whole restaurant and announced it was his birthday and everyone gave him a birthday "Hee-haa"! It was pretty embarrassing and funny!!

Today, after church, we grilled rosemary chicken and salmon and we grilled green beans for his birthday dinner. He's a doctor and is into eating really healthy foods, so it was right up his alley.

Parker enjoying his dinner!!

We realized we had no pictures of Dad and Parker by themselves. Parker actually cooperated and looked sweet for a picture!

It didn't last long!! Why can't my kids just smile?

Halle colored Dad a picture and wrote "Happy Birthday Papa" on it! She also made him a banner that we had put up on Friday.

Mom made him a Texas Sheet Cake, so we ate that after lunch and gifts!!

The rest of the afternoon we just relaxed. I actually got to take a nap with Parker on the couch for 2 hours this afternoon. It was so relaxing!!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

My Mother's Day

2009-05-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

Today is Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms!! I spent my morning at Hadley Community Church accompanying a singing ladies group. The church is very small and the choir director asked if I would play for them to sing "Simple Gifts" as a Mother's Day special in the service. I have accompanied this choir before for their Christmas cantata as well. I just enjoy serving the Lord in any way I can.
My kids presented me with a few gifts! Halle made me a silhouette of herself at school and also brought me home a potted plant. They also bought me a light, cotton dress from H&M. I love it!! It will be perfect for summer!!
Afterwards, we headed to meet my family and grandparents at the Chinese restaurant, House of Hanan. You wouldn't be able to tell that it's an awesome restaurant from the outside, but their buffet is so good!! My dad actually delivered mail to the restaurant one day and realized how good the food was, so we have been eating there periodically with my parents on Sunday afternoons. We decided this would be a great place to eat on Mother's Day because every other restaurant will be packed with families celebrating the day.
My parents just got back from Cancun, Mexico yesterday (Saturday), so they had lots of stories to tell us and pictures to show. The place they stayed at looks incredible and the water is SO blue!! I'm still trying to figure out why we never went on such awesome vacations when I lived with them?? haha!
The stayed at an all-inclusive resort, Moon Palace, right on the ocean! They were able to get into any of their 8 locations in Mexico while they were there!! At the Moon Palace resort there were 14 restaurants alone!!!

They brought back a soccer jersey and a bunch of toys for Parker.
They got Halle a t-shirt and toys!

After lunch, the girls got in one car and headed to the mall to do a little shopping. The guys headed home! My mom ended up buying Allyson and me a lip gloss from Bath & Body Works.

Have you ever tried them? They not only make your lips shiny but they smell like mint and are supposed to help disguise bad breath! I love mine!!!We went back to the house and ate dessert! Here my "black" mom is with her 3 kids!!We got her a INC shirt from Macy's and some earrings. She really liked them both and the shirt looked so nice on her because she is SO TAN!!!

My mom, Allyson, Halle, and I all went over to my grandma's house to spend a little time with her on Mother's Day. She didn't end up meeting us at the restaurant earlier in the day.

All in all, it was a very nice Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

2009-05-08T10:18:00.006-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!

I became a mom 7 years ago. My pregnancy with Halle was an unexpected surprise at that time in my life, and the plans that I had for my future had to be altered quite a bit, but it was all worth it. The joy she brought me was overwhelming!

Parker made me a mom for a second time almost 2 years ago. He is the sweetest little guy around. My love for both my kids is amazing. You never realize you can love something with all your heart until you have kids. They are the best thing in the world! Nothing can compare to holding your own child in your arms. Without my kids, my life would be boring. They keep me so busy and entertained, I think I would sit around and feel lonely all the time if I didn't have them in my life. Being a mom is quite a job, but the blessings you get in return outweigh all the work by miles.

I know I wouldn't be the mom I am today if I didn't have 2 awesome moms in my life. My mom, Pam, is an awesome lady. She is into marathon running, yoga, dancing, and reading. She is a hard worker, oragnizational freak (like me), and loves her grandkids bunches. I know that while I was growing up, her job wasn't always easy. She worked full time and then had to come home and cook dinner, clean the house, do laundry, and spend time with us. She always tried to make it to as many of our sports games as possible. I remember when she started getting Saturdays off and she would take us to either Bruegger's Bagels or Taco Bell for lunch. Just little things like that made a lasting impression on me. We've spent a lot of time shopping together, from weekends in Chicago to a quick run to the local grocery store. We both can usually find a reason to go shopping. I usually get to see my mom once a week and I enjoy spending time with her. She is my mom and I love her with all my heart. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.

The other mom in my life is my mother-in-law, Micky. She has been my 2nd mother for almost 8 years!! A lot of people think it's weird to be friends with your mother-in-law, but I have a very close relationship with mine. We talk about everything together. She is into reading, shopping, and loving on her grandkids. She has a servant's heart and is always willing to do anything to make my life easier. She likes to shop, so we do that a lot together. Many times, I try to get both my moms to go shopping together. That way I can spend time with both. I see my mom-in-law daily, as I live with her, but I still enjoy all our time together. She has been an awesome 2nd mom to me, accepting me into her family as if I were one of her own. I love her and wish her the best Mother's Day ever.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Jessica's Senior Prom

2009-05-02T22:37:00.005-04:00

Today was Jessica's Senior Prom! I can't believe she is a senior and this is her final prom. When I came into this family, she was just a little girl in elementary school, and now she's graduating...

Anyways, today, she spent the majority of it getting ready. I remember those days of running around all day getting my hair done, nails done, etc. Jess actually did her hair herself- it always looks better when she does it, and I did her nails (I guess I could become a nail technician if this teaching stuff doesn't work out)!

Her dress was very pretty and she looked stunning in it! Preston, her boyfriend, looked very handsome in his tux (which he got free because he wore it to school one day and handed out the Tuxedo store's business cards).

Preston, Rob, Salena, and Jessica

Halle made Jessica this picture. It is of her in her prom dress. So sweet!!!

The DeLange's had some parents of "prom" kids over this evening for dinner. We grilled out, and everyone brought a side dish. Our hamburgers ended up being a funny story-we used a different brand of hamburger and dad bought a brand new grill last night to use, so we're not sure what's to blame, but our hamburgers shrunk to half the size they were in patties. We called them "mini-burgers"!!

Grandpa came over too!

Aren't my kids the cutest?

Todd cut his dreads off last week. Thank goodness, they were disgusting! He looks 1,000 times better now!!Me and my sweetie! We went to a private school in high school, so we didn't have "Prom", but we did have "Jr/Sr Banquet". I went with this handsome guy both my junior and senior year! He was a great date!!!

Michigan Weather

2009-04-27T19:15:00.001-04:00

If you have ever wanted to know what Michigan weather is like, today (Saturday, April 25) was a great example. It started out with the sun shining in the windows as we woke up. Of course, Parker was up before the crack of dawn, so sleeping in wasn't really an option, but it was sure nice to see the sun peeking through the blinds.
We ate breakfast, got dressed, and headed outside. By 9am, it was already quite warm out. I put on a pair of shorts and a tank top!! It had been in the 80s for the last couple days. Parker played basketball on his hoop, and Halle and Bailey played together.

I pulled all the weeds and dead plants around the house. There were a ton!! I didn't think I was going to do it all morning long, so I didn't put any gloves on, and my hands got all torn up. I even got a huge splinter in my thumb. (I didn't take a picture of it, but just know it was a huge)I worked hard so that hopefully flowers will bloom and the landscaping will look nice.

By noon, the clouds starting rolling in, and right when I was finished working, raindrops started to fall. I got all my mess cleaned up and walked in the house, and about 2 seconds later it started to downpour.

It rained and rained!! We had a decent thrunderstorm and it was quite windy. We think it might have hailed for a few minutes too!!

Since our day was kinda ruined because of the rain, we decided to go shopping and out to dinner. As we were driving down a main highway to the mall we wanted to go to, we saw a ton of downed power lines and tree branches down. There were 5-6 power line poles that had snapped right in half and we lying on the ground. One power pole was smashed into the front a building.All the businesses for about 10-15 miles were closed due to power outages and all the stop lights were

We ate dinner at "On the Border", which is now one of our favorite mexican restaurants. We ate way too many chips and salsa. Why are they so addicting?

When we left the restaurant it was downpouring in sheets. I couldn't believe how hard the rain was coming down. Our car was really close to the door, so Brad and Halle ran to get in, and then Brad was going to bring me and Parker an umbrella. They were outside maybe 7 seconds and were completely drenched...They both looked like they had taken a shower in the clothes. Their hair was soaked and their clothes were soaked all the way through!! Parker and I ended up running to the car a few minutes later when the rain died down a little, so we didn't get as soaked as them, but we got pretty wet!

Once we left the mall, the rain had stopped, but it had cooled way down. We didn't get any more wet though (thank goodness).

It was a typical Michigan day- sunny, warm, cloudy, thunderstorm, windy, rainy, hailing, cool. The only thing we were missing was "snow", which I wouldn't have been surprised if it had snowed. It's Michigan...Anything's possible!

I missed my 100th post!

2009-04-26T13:17:00.001-04:00

A while back I came across a fun blog and thought I would use the idea to celebrate my 100th post. Well, I kind of missed my 100th! I was so busy posting about our trip to Florida, I passed it without noticing. Technically, I'm at 107 now, but I thought I would post it anyways. So, Happy 100th post!!! I can't believe I have written over 100 posts on my blog! Woo-hoo for me! I thought I would do this fun list of 100 things to do during your lifetime that I found on Jessica's blog. Everything that I have done is bolded.

1. Started your own blog (in 2008)
2. Slept under the stars (gotta give Lake Ann Baptist Camp credit for this one)
3. Played in a band (Church youth group band)
4. Visited Hawaii (would love to go anytime now...hint hint Brad)
5. Watched a meteor shower (well, if shooting stars count)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (Disney World)
8. Climbed a mountain (In Europe)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (no, but I've played a TON of piano solos- they're almost the same maybe)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (would love too someday...hint hint Brad)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (as long as crafts/baking/decorating counts)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (thanks to Red Knapp's (most recently))
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (would really love to go to NYC soon...hint hint Brad)
18. Grown your own vegetables (when I was a kid)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (was in France, but didn't see the Mona Lisa)
20. Slept on an overnight train (been on a train, but not overnight)
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (my husband used to own sheep, but it was before I came into the picture-thank goodness)
26. Gone skinny dipping (yeah right- I can barely handle what I look like in a bathing suit, none the less naked)
27. Run a Marathon (does a 5K count?)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (with Brad too!)
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run (Does hitting one on the Wii baseball game count?)
32. Been on a cruise (only dinner cruises- Sr. High school banquet)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person ( Love It!)
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community (even ate at one of their restaurants- super good food)
36. Taught yourself a new language (does understanding Parker's babbling count for anything)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I need to work on it, because I should be content with what I have)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (Allyson and I had our portraits painted at Cedar Point when we were kids)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (does using a snorkel in a pool count?)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (Does 12th grade English class homemade movies count?)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (B & K Cleaning)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (no, but I sure do love to buy them!)
62. Gone whale watching (how about dolphin watching?)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (thank heavens for our bank's Bounce Protection program)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy ("Bald-headed"-my Cabbage Patch baby doll, where are you?)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar (does Foie Gras count?-It's a delicacy-Goose Liver--I wouldn't recommend it)
72. Pieced a quilt (would really like to learn how to quilt)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone (no, but really messed up my knee during basketball season)
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (nope- they seem to always be used)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (I might have during Basketball season in High School)
85. Read the entire Bible (I really want to though)
)86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (thankfully everytime I've been called for Jury Duty, I have never had to go)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (2 to be exact)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Hopefully by my 200th post I will be able to check off a few more of these 100 things to do.
I've so enjoyed blogging and look forward to all the new memories that will happen in my next 100 posts. I love all my blogging friends (all 2 of you who actually read mine) and hope to make some new blogger friends as well.
Happy 100!! (Technically, 107!!)

So, I'm Twittering Now

2009-04-23T12:04:00.003-04:00

I have no idea why I decided to up and join Twitter, only for the sake of saying I did so, I guess. I had no clue what it was even all about, even though approximately a million different people on television and here in the blogging world talked about it all the time. "Catch me on Twitter", "See what I've got to say on Twitter", and so forth. Well, I finally signed up the other day. I figured, although I am totally confused, I would rather be a part of it now, than look stupid 3 years from now, when I'm the only person left who doesn't "twitter." That's usually the case. I'm always a couple years behind on everything...Facebook, blogging, text messaging, reading the Twilight series, etc.
I am now a part this world. I must admit that I really do not have any time to spend on yet another website daily, but it's kind of cool to see what celebs are doing at any given moment, and so I catch myself spending 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, throughout the day watching Twitter. My life isn't very exciting, so my headline is pretty "blah", but I did have Julianne Hough from "Dancing with the Stars" choose to follow me!! Maybe she sees potential in my twitter that I have yet to notice.
Anyways, if you have a twitter, let me know, and I will follow you.
Have a Twitterific Day!!

Is it too late for an Easter post?

2009-04-16T10:29:00.008-04:00

(I know, I know. Easter was over a week ago and I am just now posting about it. Oh well, I'm a little behind, obviously)

Easter, for us this year, was extremely weird and different. Most years, our Easter dresses and suits are bought, we have colored Easter eggs, and I have the kids' baskets full. We go to church, sing the traditional Easter songs, and have a nice meal with the family afterwards.

Since we didn't get home from our trip until the evening before Easter Sunday, I was quite behind (seems to be a theme in my life lately). Plus, we have been doing church at home with the family, so we weren't even sure we were going to a service somewhere.

Brad and I ran out to Meijer at about 11pm Saturday night to get a few goodies for the kids. They both got so much stuff from Florida, but I thought it would be nice to have at least a little something in their baskets. Brad had gone out earlier in the day to get some candy and only was able to find a few things. Everything was picked over. We really didn't find much, but did get Parker the movie Bolt, and Halle some sidewalk chalk and a new jump rope.

Since we didn't dye any eggs this year, Brad and I filled 50 plastic eggs with candy and money and hid them all around our apartment downstairs.

The kids were excited to open up their treats in their baskets in the morning, and Halle had a lot of fun searching for eggs. Parker only did it for about 3 minutes before he was begging to watch Bolt.

We all put on nice shirts (not our typical dresses and suits) and had church with the family at home.

My parents invited us over for a brunch, so we headed there after our service. My parents made egg casserole, french toast casserole, muffins, fruit, toast, etc. It was all very good!

In the afternoon, we took the kids over to a park and let them play.

Although our Easter was a lot different from previous years, we still were reminded of the celebration of Easter and it's importance. Of all other stories in the Bible, this one is the most important. We should be celebrating Easter everyday, not just one day a year. Easter is a good reminder of the greatness of God, to overcome death, even death on a cross, and make a way for all of us to spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Goodbye Florida

2009-04-16T10:22:00.005-04:00

Goodbye Florida!!
Today, we left Florida to come back home. We were super sad to say goodbye to the warm, sunny weather, but were excited to see Brad and Parker. We missed them alot!!

Our first flight didn't leave until 11:55 am, so we were able to sleep in a little, have a nice breakfast, and then make our way to the airport, which was only 3 minutes away.

I hadn't read but maybe 20 pages of a book the entire week I was there, but I finally got hooked on a book last night in the hotel, and ended up reading the entire thing during our first flight.

Unfortunately, we had a 3.5 hour layover in Cleveland. It was extremely boring! Our concourse was empty for the majority of our layover, so Halle did kart-wheels down the corridors and I slept. We so badly wanted to get home!!

We finally made it back to MI about 6:30 pm!!

Brad, Todd, Scott, Parker, and Preston all came to pick us up (we had two cars).
It was nice to be back home and give Brad and Parker hugs and kisses.

Parker in his new outfit!

Florida Day # 7

2009-04-16T10:05:00.008-04:00

Florida Day # 7
Our last full day in Florida

Do we really have to say goodbye to this?

We spent the morning packing up our suitcases and making sure everything was ready to leave around noon. Then we headed off to Marineland.

Marineland is a place right on the ocean where you can watch, touch, feed, and even swim with dolphins. We had talked about possibly swimming with dolphins all week long, but we didn't realize that you needed a reservation weeks in advance to do so, plus it's SUPER expensive.

We stopped by Marineland yesterday to check it all out and ended up only being able to get in the "Touch and Feed" class, and the only time available was Friday morning.

Once we got there, we were given some time to go and watch the dolphins just swim around.

Then Jess, Hal, and I all went in to touch and feed the dolphin. We weren't allowed to take a camera or a phone in with us, so I couldn't get any close up pics.

We got to spend about 8-10 minutes with the dolphins. We played with "Chubby", who was a 40 year old male dolphin. They waved to us, made noises, and did a bunch of jumps which got us soaking wet. It was a lot of fun!!!

After that, we headed back to the resort to pick up Dad and head out. We ended up stopping at a flea market right outside of Orlando for a hour or so. All the girls got Coach purses!! Mom even bought 2!!

We stayed until the flea market shut down (around 3:30-4pm) and then we went on to Tampa. We got to our hotel, cleaned up a little, and then headed to a huge, nice mall that was right around the corner.

We ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory and then shopped at the mall the rest of the evening. I got myself a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt (I knew I was coming back to cold temps) and got Brad a few things.

It was sad to know it was our last day in Florida, but we crammed a lot in and made it a very nice last day!

Florida Day # 6

2009-04-13T10:47:00.006-04:00

Florida Day # 6- April 9, 2009

This was a house right on the ocean that Jessica and I just loved!! It was HUGE, but looked really comfy and inviting. We really wanted to see what the inside looked like.
After shopping at a few boutiques in the morning, we headed back to the resort for one last day of the beach. Jess, Mom, and I all got new bathing suits while shopping!!
We ate lunch at the Ocean Cafe at the resort before heading to the ocean.

This was our view of the pool from the Cafe.

Mom, Hal, and Dad waiting to eat lunch.

Back at the ocean- Our favorite place to be! Jessica got brave enough to get in the cold water and play in the waves with Halle and Dad. I didn't! I'm not one for cold water, unless I'm super hot!

The wind really picked up a few hours later, so Jess, Hal and I all headed to the pool to swim. Halle hadn't gotten a chance to go down the slide yet, so she wanted to make sure she did it before we left.

Halle went down about 500 times!! She loved it!

I actually got in the pool. It helped that it was heated!!

Before we went back up to the room, we got in the hot tub. It was wonderful! That's my kind of swimming.

Tonight, being our last night at the resort, we decided to get dressed up for dinner. Our reservations weren't until 8:30pm at the Atlantic Grille (the other restaurant at the resort).

Halle in front of the dolphin fountain

It was quite chilly and windy

At dinner. The restaurant had only 8 entrees to choose from, none of which was anything I really liked. So, I "stepped out of my box" (as Halle put it) and ordered the salmon. It was actually pretty good. It had a strawberry bbq glaze on it.

It was a nice, last day at the resort. Tomorrow we head back across the state to Tampa.

Florida Day # 5

2009-04-13T10:36:00.004-04:00

Florida Day # 5- April 8, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

It was my dad's 61st birthday today! Unfortunately, we missed his party, but we did get to talk to him for a little bit!

This was our view from our apartment!! It was cloudy the morning I took this, but when the sun was shining, it was very pretty!!
Today we spent the afternoon down at the beach. We ran into a fun beach store (back towards St. Augustine-there was nothing in Palm Coast) in the morning, and then met Dad at the beach around noon. In the evening, we headed to the outlet mall in St. Augustine. We ate dinner at Ruby Tuesday and shopped the evening away. There were tons of stores!! Lots of designer outlet stores, which was cool- Juicy Couture, Coach, Dooney & Bourke, etc.

Halle talking to Brad while shopping
After the stores closed, we headed back to our resort. We missed American Idol, but we heard Scott got booted. I liked him, but he really wasn't the greatest singer. I could listen to him play the piano forever though.

Florida Day # 4

2009-04-13T10:24:00.004-04:00

Florida Day # 4- April 7, 2009

It was COLD today!!! Well, if you consider mid 60's cold!! The wind was really blowing though, so we wore sweatshirts and jeans today. Halle, however, really wanted to go check out the pool, so we went down and covered up in towels so she could go swimming. Halle all alone in the massive pool...There were 100s of kids there, and she was the only one brave enough to get in the water today. The pool was heated though, so that helped.

Because it was chilly, we decided to head to St. Augustine, which was about 30 min north of us. Preston and Mrs. H drove over from Orlando to spend the afternoon with us.

Getting ready to go shopping in St. Augustine

This was the oldest wood school house in the US. It was right on the main street with all the little shops. You could take a tour of it, but we didn't.

This is the restuarant where we ate dinner. It was called The Raintree. It was really good, except the menu was filled with alot of stuff I had no clue what it was. It was just like a house, with a front door and everything.

Halle and Papa...They were buddies on this trip!

We went to Dairy Queen for dessert. We headed back to our resort and just relaxed the rest of the evening. It was an enjoyable day, but we're hoping for warmer weather tomorrow.

Florida Day # 3

2009-04-13T10:01:00.006-04:00

Florida Day # 3- April 6, 2009

Hammock Beach Resort, Palm Coast

This is the resort we stayed at. It is by far the nicest place I have ever been. It was huge and extremely beautiful!! The pictures just don't do it justice.We spent our first morning there at the ocean! Our resort was right on the ocean, so we had our own private beach!
Stylin on the beach

Bathing Beauties

If you can see that fin in the water, that's a dolphin! We saw a 5-6 of them and we think we might have seen 2 sharks too!! They were super close to shore.

Hal and Papa playing in the waves

All dressed for dinner. We ate at Seaside Grille, which was a restaurant at the resort.

Halle got a double chocolate cake for dessert and it was like fudge. Delicious!
Here's what our apartment looked like

The girl's bathroom

Halle and my room. Jess slept on the pull-out couch

Living Room
Kitchen

Kitchen/Dining Room
Our balcony

Our first day at the resort was so relaxing. We needed it after Disney! Nothing beats playing in the sand, listening to the waves, and having the sun shining on you!!

Florida Day # 2

2009-04-13T09:27:00.007-04:00

Florida Day # 2- April 5, 2009

DISNEY WORLD!!

It was the perfect day for the park- High 80's with a little cloud cover. Halle super excited to get there! The last time she went was when she was 2 and she doesn't remember anything about it.

Dad doing what he did best- pulling out the credit card to pay!! haha!!

Cinderella's Castle
Halle on Main Street

Swiss Family Treehouse

The first ride- Pirates of the Caribbean

Standing in line at "It's A Small World" This is the view we looked at all day long. Halle and Papa led us around the park

Halle is front of Minnie's house...Their smiles kind of match!
Me and Hal

We spent the 1st half of the day at Magic Kingdom and the 2nd half at Animal Kingdom. Yes, we crammed 2 parks in one day! We really were flying around the parks, but we got to see and do a lot!!

The Tree of Life- it's got a ton of animals carved into the trunk

Halle with Terk

We went on the African Safari!!! AWESOME!!! We saw so many animals!!

I won't bore you with tons of pics of animals, but here are a few:

All the animals were just in open land, no fences dividing off the animals.

Alligators

Headless giraffe...Haha!

Elephant

Lion yawning, even though it's cooler to say he was roaring!!

Gorilla

Mickey Mouse
There was a Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom, so we ate dinner there. It was nice to sit down for a few minutes after running all over the parks all day.

Halle and I went on one last ride before leaving Animal Kingdom. It was this crazy rollercoaster!!We headed back to Magic Kingdom for another hour or so to do a little shopping. We left the park at 9 pm and had 1.5 hr drive to our resort in Palm Coast. We got in to the resort about 11 pm and Halle didn't get to bed until about 1 am.

We had an extremely busy day! It was tons of fun and we really wished Brad and Parker would have been there with us. We all slept really hard and looked forward to relaxing on the beach tomorrow.

Florida Day #1

2009-04-13T08:55:00.004-04:00

Florida Trip: Day #1- April 4, 2009

I hauled my laptop with me to Florida and my intention was to blog about our vacation every night so I wouldn't have a bunch to do when I got home. Well, the building where we stayed for the majority of the week did NOT have Wi-Fi or even a cable for me to plug in the computer, so I had no way of getting online, unless I wanted to drive up to Starbucks every morning. (I chose to go to the beach instead)

So, here's our vacation.

Halle all ready to head to the airport

It was pretty cool the morning we left MI. We were all ready for warm weather!
Our first flight was to Cleveland, OH. It was a small plane!! It only held 30-40 people.

Are we there yet?
Waiting in the Cleveland airport. We had just enough time to grab some lunch before boarding the next plane. We made it to FLORIDA!!! In front of an aquarium at the airport in Tampa. We were waiting for the rental car. I forgot to take a picture of it, but the rental place gave us this small SUV that only held 2-3 suitcases. We had 6 large suitcases and 5 people!!! So, we ended up waiting for about 1/2 hr for them to bring us a decent sized SUV. They gave dad 20% off for the mishap!
We made it to Orlando, got cleaned up, and headed out to the town of Celebration. It's a nice, new town with homes, shops, restaurants, etc. It was beautiful out!

We ate at the Town Tavern. We got to eat outside. This was the buzzer that notified us when our table was ready.

We met up with Preston (Jess's boyfriend) and his mom for dinner. I obviously missed the memo that we were supposed to wear pink and white!!It was a great first day! It was so warm and we were in shorts! That's all that mattered!! We got dessert at Kilwin's and walked around the town before heading back to our hotel for some sleep. We've got a big day tomorrow- Disney World!!

One More Day

2009-04-03T09:58:00.003-04:00

Well, I can't believe it, but we've finally made it to the last day before Spring Break!! It seems like just yesterday we had 5 weeks to go. Time has gone by fast! All week Halle has been saying she hoped this week would go by super fast and then next week would go by super slow. I was hoping for the same.

Halle and I are pretty much packed and ready to go (can you tell we're excited?). We just have a few random things that need to get into our suitcases before we head off tomorrow morning.The kids at school today are all geeked up. I remember being a kid in school and loving the day before break. We hardly did any work and we were always excited, especially if we were going somewhere cool.

I was trying to remember some of my Spring Break memories from when I was a kid. My parents always seem to scrounge up enough money for us to go somewhere every year.

*We went to Florida quite a bit. We never flew because buying 5 plane tickets would have sucked up all the money my parents had set aside for the vacation, so we always drove (all 20+ hours). We always had a van, and we would take out the two captain seats/bench and lay blankets down. Obviously, my parents didn't think we would ever get pulled over by a cop and questioned why we weren't in seats. We never did though!! It gave us so much extra space to lay down, play games, etc. My dad would drive all the way through. Sometimes he would stop at a rest area and try to sleep for a couple hours, but we all just wanted to get there, so he would just keep driving.

*One year, we did try stopping at a motel right off the expressway and boy was that an adventure. It was after midnight and my dad was quite tired, so he decided to pull off and find a place to sleep. He should have known by the looks of it that it wasn't a good place to be. It was called "Scottish Inns" somewhere in the South (I'm not saying all Scottish Inns are this way, but this one was). When we got to the room, we noticed that cops were circling the motel. We went inside and realized that this was a place where men and women meet up for a couple hours and then go their separate ways (I think you get my drift). My mom was so freaked out she wouldn't let us lay on the beds, nor the carpet. There was a huge hole in the wall and bees were flying all around. My brother is allergic to bees, so everyone was freaking out. We pretty much all went to the bathroom, packed up and left. It lasted about 15 minutes!
* One year we took my Great Grandma Franklin with us. I remember my dad had pulled over and was trying to sleep for a little while, and he had turned the car off. It was 2-3 in the morning, and it was HOT! My grandma and I were awake because we were sweating so much. We didn't want to wake my dad up because he was so tired, but we were dying. We were laughing, trying to be quiet and trying to cool down. Finally, we woke my dad up because we couldn't handle it any longer.

*The first time we went to Disney World was SO cool. I remember shopping for clothes before we went, and Allyson and I got a couple of matching outfits, just in different colors. My parents bought a 6-7 day pass to all the parks, so we went everywhere. We even went to Typhoon Lagoon, which is one of the waterparks, and Allyson got lost while we were there!! Somehow we found her in one of the gift shops talking to the sales clerk. We stayed in Orlando, shopped at Disney Village, and conned my parents into staying an extra day or two!! (That's one nice thing about driving-you choose when you leave)

*One night at Disney, a severe storm came in. It was lightning and tornado sirens were going off. The lines to get out of the park were miles long, so we went and sat in a locker room with a few other families until the lines died down. As a kid, it was a little freaky, even though I'm sure it wasn't as bad as I remember.

*We started going to Clearwater Beach on a fluke. We were supposed to go to my aunt's time- share in another city, but we landed on Clearwater Beach first, and thought it looked like a fun place to stay. We found a hotel and ended up loving it there! For quite a few years after that, we always went to the same hotel.

* After Brad and I got married, the DeLanges started going with my family to Clearwater Beach. The first year or two, Brad and I didn't go with them, but one year we all went. It was a lot of fun. The boys scoped out girls on the beach, the girls shopped, and Halle was just 2 years old, so she loved every second of it. We took her to Magic Kingdom for a day, but she doesn't remember much of it.

We're really sad that Parker and Brad aren't going with us this year, but we're looking forward to all the memories we will make on this trip. Hopefully, sometime soon, we can go somewhere as a family...We have a few ideas brewing...

Parker's Infatuation

2009-04-02T09:57:00.004-04:00

Parker is absolutely infatuated with the movie "Spirit". Have you ever seen it?We were searching through all the old videos here at the house a while back, looking for movies that had horses in them because Parker just loves horses, and we came across this one. He is now infatuated with this movie!!

I had never seen the movie before Parker, and now I have seen it millions of times (at least it feels like it). It's a story about a wild mustang, who tells his story of being free. There isn't a whole lot of talking, but the soundtrack is beautiful!

Every morning, after breakfast, he stands at the television and begs to watch it. Instead of saying "horse", he says "neigh". So, he points to the tv and repeatedly says "neigh" until we put the movie in.
This movie is about 1.5 hours long and he will sit as still as can be on the couch or on his stuffed horse for the entire thing! Usually kids lose interest in movies/shows after the first 20 min. Not Parker! He can't take his eyes off of this movie while it is on.

There's some Indians in the movie, and Parker has asked me to take off his shirt so he can look like the Indian in the movie. It was adorable!

We have put a limit on how many times he watches it in a day. Right now, it's 3 times a day. It seems like a lot, but it's not like I'm forcing him to sit and watch it as a "babysitter". He BEGS for it!!

I've never seen a baby more in love with horses than Parker. He watches this movie quite a bit, he stands at the window and watches the real horses outside, and he loves to ride the horses!

We only have "Spirit" on VHS right now, but Brad just ordered him the DVD from amazon.com. So, we will have a back-up in case anything happens to either one of them.

I think I'm either going to have a cowboy or a quarterback for a son in the future. I'm okay with that though :0)

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-03-31T10:25:00.003-04:00

I haven't been on to blog for almost a week because my life has been pretty busy. I've missed it!

Here's what's been happening in our BUSY life lately:

* We are counting down the days until Florida. Only 4 more (counting today) until we leave for vacation! We are super excited!!! One of the things that has kept me really busy lately is making sure we have everything we need for the trip. Flip flops, shorts, tanks, swimsuits, etc...I

think we've got it all (at least my bank statement is saying so). I am still looking for a good book to read on the beach, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

We're spending 6 nights here-Hammock Beach Resort

and we're going here for a day!

* Our babysitting arrangements have been changed drastically. My mom-in-law has been watching Parker for us while we are at school/work, but due to some changes at Dad's office, she is now the new receptionist. So, we no longer have her to help. Thanks to my dad and Grandpa P's willingness to watch Parker occassionally and Brad's work schedule, I think we might have it all covered.

* It snowed here Sunday. It was a HUGE bummer to see huge flakes of snow falling and sticking to the ground. It wasn't a whole lot, just enough to cover the ground with a blanket of white. Thankfully, it melted the next day and is slowly starting to warm up again, but we were really wishing for spring to get here sooner rather than later.

* My to-do list this week is growing longer and longer. Instead of blogging, I should be organizing my time and list. (oh well)

* I am LOVING my Ipod Touch!! I use it all the time!!

* We are back to having church at home with the family. We aren't totally ruling out Davison Community Church, but we aren't sure if that's where our family is supposed to be. After vacation, we have a few other churches we are going to try. We miss Carmel (our church in NC) a lot!!! We still listen to the pastor's messages online, but I miss the opportunities Halle and Parker had at that church.

* Halle has picked her piano recital songs for this year. Her teacher doesn't care if she plays two songs because they are shorter, so we have picked 2. She is going to play "Holy, Holy, Holy" as a duet with me and a another song in her lesson book. So, she has begun working on those songs.

* We need to find another car soon. Brad is starting to get a few jobs lined up for the summer and he is going to need a truck or car with a hitch to haul materials around. So, I guess that is next on our "Stuff we need to buy" list. Hopefully, we can find a decent one cheap enough for our poor pocketbook.

Here's what we'd like to buy...

Here's what we can afford... (haha!)

* Our other car is getting worked on right now. I'm scared to know how much that is going to cost us. I hate car problems!

So, that's our life in a nutshell. It's been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

The New Bathroom

2009-03-25T14:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I finished the girl's bathroom (I mentioned we were redoing it a few posts ago). Actually, it has been done since last Saturday, but my weekend was filled with other cool things I had to post on, so I am now getting around to it.

Here's the front room. It connects between Halle and Jessica's room. It used to be a darker gray color. The mirrors are the same, but the faucets and towel hooks are new. We made these. I actually saw this idea on another blog, just can't remember which one. We just took normal soap bottles, peeled off the stickers, and put on scrapbooking stickers and a bow.The new towel bar and towelsClose up of the details on the towelsWe got a couple of these cute frames from Hobby Lobby, my new favorite store.The toliet/shower room. I painted it light pink (used to be dark gray).I stole the picture from Jessica's room. It matches her room too, but I thought it looked better in the bathroom.

The rug

The shower curtain. It's a little wrinkly now, but we're hoping the steam from the shower will iron it out. Otherwise, we will be steaming it ourselves. It has fur and diamonds on it!!! Very chic!

These are the curtain hooks. Lipsticks, shoes, and purses!! Very cute!
We haven't tackled painting the inside of the tub yet. Mom D still needs to get a valance for the window and a small cupboard for towels, and we are looking for an elegant looking tall vase to put on the counter.

Project #2 accomplished (for the most part). Everyone keeps saying I should be an interior designer. Actually, that was my original plan after high school. I just enjoy working on rooms in my house or my in-laws house (for now). :0)

Now the question is, which room will be next??

The Lion King:The Musical

2009-03-23T13:23:00.005-04:00

One of my birthday gifts from Brad was tickets to see The Lion King: The Musical (isn't he the BEST gift-giver?). We went yesterday to The Wharton Center (on MSU's campus) to see it. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants beforehand- P.F. Changs. We split the lettuce wraps and sweet and sour chicken. We got a little worried when we first got to the restaurant because it seemed that everyone else had the same idea as us. It was 4pm and the place was PACKED!! We had to wait 30 min-thankfully it was only the 2 of us, because our wait would have been A LOT longer otherwise. Here we are before we left!You were strictly prohibited to take any pictures during the show, so I wasn't able to get any cool pics. I grabbed these off of the internet!! If you have never seen The Lion King (the Broadway show, not the movie), you MUST see it!!! It is SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER GOOD!!! The singing is great, the acting/dancing is awesome, and the costumes are unbelievable!!!! The characters come down into the audience, and Brad and I were lucky enough to sit 4 rows from the front and on the aisle, so we saw the costumes really up close!!!

The lady who played the older Nala had a really nice voice!

The lady who played "Rafiki" in our show had an AMAZING voice!!!

The guy who played the bird, Zazu, was SO talented.

Every animal, plant, and even the grass, were actually actors. Those guys were on stilts for the giraffes.

If The Lion King comes to your town, I would definitely recommend you go and see it. Even if you weren't into the movie, this is a totally different experience. Kids would love it too! It's the BEST Broadway show I have seen (and I've seen a few).

My Birthday

2009-03-22T12:09:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday to me!!

Saturday, March 21, was my birthday! I got to relax all day long because Brad nor his mom would let me do anything to help get ready for my party. I am so used to cooking food, cleaning, decorating, and planning activities for everyone esle's birthdays, it felt weird to not have to do anything.

My family all came over in the evening and we celebrated together.
The colors were purple and green- very pretty

Halle bought me those flowers on the table

Here's Hal and Parker playing before the party. Halle wouldn't smile and Parker's laughing..Go figure. My sweet boy
Gotta love that sweet face

My sisters, Allyson and Jessica- the coolest girls in town!

My sweet girl- she really worked hard to make my birthday special.

Parker eating his dinner- I think he likes it!

I LOVE IT!!! Mom D. made me my favorite meal of all time- Chicken Broccoli. I really appreciated her doing it because she had never made it before (usually my mom makes it). It tasted great!!

Opening presents Halle videoed the party My big gift from Brad- an Ipod Touch!! Now I will be cool like everyone else

Brad also got me a bathing suit and tickets to The Lion King:The Musical!!

The rest of the family got me some clothes, jewelry, Itunes gift cards, money, and a gift certificate to get my nails done

I was SPOILED!!!!
My super-cute cake
It tasted good too!!!

I made my wish and blew out the candles.

The rest of the evening, the guys watched college bball and the rest of us played "Take Two"- it's a game played with Scrabble pieces.

I had an extremely blessed birthday!! Everyone worked hard to make my day special and it was! I am truly blessed with a family who loves me a lot!!

My New Hair

2009-03-20T18:00:00.001-04:00

Yesterday after work, I had an appointment to get my hair done. It's been FOREVER since I have gone to the salon. I usually wait until I can't stand what my hair looks like any longer or until we have something special coming up in our life that I want to look good at (birthday and Florida this time). I always love when I get my hair done, I just hate dishing out the moo-lah for it to happen.
I like my hair dresser alot. Her name is Kim and she's the owner of Innovations Hair Salon. It's a really upscale looking salon with really nice workers, but decent prices. I once got my hair done in Charlotte and spent over double what I spend here.

I have been debating getting my hair chopped for quite a while. I LOVE long hair, but felt that I have always had long hair and needed a new look. I always think about the make-overs you see on tv and how they take someone with straight long hair, chop it, and they look 100 times better. What if that was me?? I was definitely going to get my hair highlighted blonde for the spring/summer (which I always do), but I was really undecided about getting it cut. If any of you have ever had long hair and thought about chopping it, it's not an easy decision. Brad kept texting me throughout the whole day encouraging me to cut it. He really wanted a change in my hair. I had seen this picture a while ago and thought it was cute.

When I got to the salon, Kim asked me what I wanted done. Before I even had a chance to say anything, Kim suggested I chop my hair to the middle of my neck!!!!! She said it would be SUPER cute! I hadn't even shown her the picture or said anything about cutting it yet!! I took it as a sign that I should just go for it, showed her this picture, and prayed I would love it. My heart was beating so fast. Before I knew it, all my long hair was gone!!! For the next two hours, I sat there debating whether I had made the right decision.

My Hair Before- and it is curled in this pic, so it was really a little longer

My Hair after- LOTS shorter and blonder

Brad absolutely LOVES my new hair. Everyone says I look more "sophisicated". I LOVE the color and am getting used to the cut. I have never had my hair this short, ever!

First Day of Spring

2009-03-20T10:04:00.003-04:00

Happy First Day of Spring!!! For all my friends down south, this means nothing to you, as you have been blessed with nice weather for a while now. For us stuck in the north, it brings a little excitement, as we hope spring really is on it's way here. I will admit I was quite disappointed this morning to see frost all over my car. I'm just praying for no more snow!!

To celebrate this great day, I wanted to share some of my favorite things about spring.

My birthday is during it! March 21st (the 2nd day of spring)

Everything starts blooming

We get to spend more time outside on nice days

We celebrate Easter

We get a Spring Break

We begin to grill out- the best food is made on the grill

We get to wear bright, spring-y clothes! No more drab, dark sweaters!

Happy Spring !

Painting Project #2

2009-03-19T09:27:00.004-04:00

Well, after the success of Halle's bedroom, I have now been "promoted" (if you can call it that) to heading up some new projects around the house. My mom-in-law LOVED Hal's room and now wants the bathroom between Halle's and Jessica's room redone. She has designated me to do the brunt of the work for some reason. (ha!)

Right now, the bathroom is a blue-gray color with dark gray rugs and a gray striped shower curtain.

The shower curtain now:And here's what we're changing it to:Shower hooksAlthough they had the bath ensemble to match the shower curtain, we went with these instead because they were on clearance and looked really cool. You can't tell from the picture, but the white part is glittery and around the tops are diamond jewels. It goes really well with the theme.

I spent last night getting everything off the walls, filling in all the holes from towel bars, etc., and taping. Everything is set to start painting tonight. We are painting the front room gray and the room with the shower and toliet a light pink.

Pics to come as soon as it is done!

We are also going to try and tackle painting the inside of the bathtub and walls. Because we live in the country, we have well water, which has a lot of rust in it, so our showers turn orangish and the tub has had 17+ years of kid's gruby/grimy feet standing in it. It really needs a make-over and we thought that before we buy a "bath fitter" (a tub cover that just goes over top of your old tub), we would see what painting it looks like. If it looks horrible, we'll call Bath Fitter. Have you ever done this? What did you think?

PS. I'm FINALLY getting my hair done tonight!!! It's been forever since I have gotten it done! I want it to look nice for my birthday (only a few days away) and for our trip to Florida in 2.5 weeks!

St. Patty's Day

2009-03-17T14:28:00.001-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Hopefully, you remembered to wear green today, otherwise you probably found yourself being pinched a time or two, my dear lassie. I'm not sure if adults really do the whole pinching thing much anymore, but kids sure do, and if you found yourself in an elementary school without green on, you were in trouble. I am not irish (well, I guess I have a little in me) and I don't go and drink the night away, but I do like to dress up for the day. It probably helps that my absolute favorite color is green, so today just gives me another reason to wear all my green clothes. I guess I am lucky to have green eyes, so I would have been safe from all pinches even if I would have forgot to wear anything green.

I thought it would be fun to test my knowledge of "All Things Irish", so I took this fun quiz! I didn't do so well though. I only got 1 out of 10 correct. Yikes!

Here's a few fun facts about St. Patrick's Day I thought I would share:

1. The original color of this day was blue, not green.

2. The largest St. Patrick's Day parade is held in New York City every year.

3. A lot of cities and towns dye their rivers and fountains green for the day.

4. St. Patty's Day is known for being a religious holiday in Ireland, and pubs were mandated to be closed on this day. It wasn't until 1970 that the law changed.

5. The shamrock is considered a symbol for the rebirth of spring.

6. Leprechauns have nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day. Thanks to the 1959 Walt Disney movie, Darby O' Gill and the Little People, which made leprechauns seem cheery and fun, the leprechaun started to evolve into the holiday and a symbol of Ireland.

I hope you had a fun St. Patty's Day!!

Our home

2009-03-12T23:32:00.007-04:00

I thought since I posted some pictures of Halle's new room a few days ago, I would show you what the rest of our "home" looks like. We have been living with my in-laws since last August (when we moved back to MI). They have a big home, and our family has taken over the basement-which is more like an apartment. Halle took over one of the real bedrooms in the house, so that's why her room is so big!!
We would obviously love to have our own home, but we are extremely grateful for what we have been blessed with here at the DeLange's residence.

Here's what our place looks like:

Living Room

The Kitchen

The Dining Room

The desk area

Our bedroom- It's not as cool as Halle's, but it does the job

The fireplace in our room

Another view of our room

The Bathroom

Parker's room area...It's a complete mess, but I didn't feel like cleaning it just to take a picture

Dressing (our kids) for Less

2009-03-11T23:45:00.005-04:00

I'm all about finding a good deal on clothes, for me and my kids. Even if I had all the money in the world, I think I would still find it really hard to spend a lot of money on an article of clothing. I can't remember the last time I bought something for full price. I always search the sale racks, shop at outlet stores, or shop at Target (my absolute favorite store).

Kelly from Kelly's Korner wrote a fun post today about dressing cheaply throughout our recession, so I thought I would play along as well. Because I spend most of my money and time shopping for my kids (it's way more fun shopping for them than for myself), I thought I would mention a few places I like to get great deals for little ones, while still having them look cute and in-style.

#1. Target (you had to know it was going to be # 1 on my list)- They have some of the best prices around and adorable clothes. I usually get all of Halle and Parker's basic clothing there. They always have really cute clothes for girls. I usually find really good deals on the clearance rack- 30-75% off. We just bought Parker a new pair of shoes that look identical to some adidas ones for $6!! Even when paying the normal price though, everything is still really inexpensive.

Girls' dresses $12.99-16.99

I love Converse shoes on kids!! Only $19.99

They always have cute tops for girls.

Basic shorts/tees for both boys and girls are $4-6 dollars each, and will go on sale for $3 each

Most boys' shoes are $9.99-14.99

#2. Children's Place- I can't say I always find things I like in this store because sometimes their clothes are a little wild, but they always have great sales. Once you get on their mailing list, you are always receiving 15% off coupons, which you can use on top of the sales already in the store. Most of the time, anything that is on sale ends up having an extra 20-25% off that price as well, and if you use the coupon, you are walking away with clothes for barely nothing. I have spent as little as $1-2 on shirts for Parker. I just bought Parker a whole sweatsuit-pants and sweatshirt for $5 total! Can't beat that!!

Jeans for both boys and girls are $12.50-16.50

I buy all of Parker's pj's from here. On clearance, they are as cheap as $3-5 (which is when I buy them), but usually their deal is 3 for $25!!

#3. Justice- for girls. When we lived in Charlotte, NC, a Justice store opened up about 5 minutes away from where we lived. Halle was always wanting to go there. I liked it because their clothes were just like Limited Too's, but cheaper. Now all Limited Too stores have switched over to Justice (no one can afford LT prices during the recession), so we have one close by us now in MI. I can't say their clothes are really cheap, but they are good quality, cute, and if you get them on sale, they are a good deal. If you get on their mailing list, you get 30-40% off coupons quite freqeuntly. You can use it on sale items as well, so it makes for a good deal. We just bought Halle a bunch of clothes for summer and spent $6-10 on each item after coupons.

#4. Gap Kids/Baby Gap/Gap Outlet- I love Gap for kids. I can't say I find myself much there, but I have always thought their kids clothes are cute. I only buy stuff when it's on sale, and if you wait long enough, their prices get really low. I have found $40 pair of pants for less than $10 before. You just have to wait it out though. Sometimes when you buy an item, you get a survey on the bottom of your receipt. If you take the survey online, you get a code for an extra 15% off your next purchase. It only take 3-4 minutes to take the survey, so it's worth it.

So, there's the top 4 stores I shop at for my kids. I love to dress my kids nicely, but I never spend a lot doing it. Why break the bank on clothes that will only fit them for a few months? If you are really looking for a good deal, always browse the sale racks, never buy anything full price, use coupons, and above all, be patient- it will go on sale at some point!!

**I have posted a link on Kelly's blog. You can go there and see where others have blogged about finding great deals on clothes.

Halle's New Room

2009-03-08T22:53:00.006-04:00

Halle's New Room
We spent most of Friday afternoon/evening and most of the day on Saturday working on her room. The majority of our time was spent taping around doors, windows, the baseboard, and for the black stripe around the center of the wall.

We are really pleased with how everything turned out and I didn't spend a ton redoing her room (which is a plus). I pulled out my creative side to make a few accents for the room and we used some things we had lying around the house, so the paint was our only major cost (and it really wasn't that much).

Halle is super pleased too!!

This is her NEW room looking in from the door to the left
Looking in from the door to the right

Here are some before and after pictures

Before-desk area

AfterI just put some zebra scrapbooking paper on her tack board

The window seat
I made these valances myself. I bought solid black valances from Walmart and hot glued zebra ribbon and hot pink feathers (from JoAnn Fabric's) to the bottom of them

Before- bed area, except Halle had already put her new bedding on before I took this picture. Her old bedding was light purple with pink/purple flower sheets

After
Before- I took this frame from my room
After- I just put covered the matting with zebra paper. We are going to change those pictures out and put some more recent pics in

Before- her letters
After- I free handed the stripes on each letter and then painted them in. It took me a couple nights to get them done, but I love how they turned out

Before- vanity areaAfterOur $5 find at TJ Maxx. She holds necklaces, hair clips, pictures
Halle LOVES her new room!

A glimpse of Halle's Extreme Bedroom Makeover

2009-03-04T13:26:00.003-05:00

Halle's room has been in need of a makeover for quite some time. Although the pink and purple flowers are nice, she has had them for the past 4 years and everything is faded and looking old/worn.

Old beddingSo, this past weekend, Halle and I went out shopping for a couple hours on Sunday and came home with new bedroom stuff for her room. We usually aren't that lucky to find something we both like the first day we look, but we already had an idea in our minds before we left, which made it a lot easier.

We got a solid Black comforter from Target
Hot Pink Sheets from Target

This super fun Zebra pillow (from Target, of course)I have been working on quite a few projects for her room since we got all this stuff. Needless to say, black, hot pink, and zebra are what I'm working with. Every day this week, I have spent my evenings working on different projects. I'm not showing them now, so I won't ruin the full effect of her made-over room (pics to come after this weekend). We don't have school on Friday, so I am going to begin painting her room then. It's a huge room, so it's going to take me a while. I really want to have everything done this weekend though... We'll see...I am really excited about it!! Pray I don't run into any snags along the way, or mess up royaly while painting.

Halle's Dinner

2009-02-27T10:25:00.004-05:00

Tonight Halle made dinner!!! She has been dying to make dinner since she got her very own cookbook for her birthday!

She decided to make French Dip Sandwiches Pasta Salad Strawberries and Red Pop/Root Beer Floats for dessert
We tweaked the recipes a bit (from the book), but Halle did all of the cutting for the salad, she layered all the sandwiches, set the table, and cleaned up after dinner.

It got a little hectic while we were fixing the sandwiches because you have to really watch them so they don't burn (I kind of burnt the first batch), so I forgot take any pictures of Halle hard at work.

Here are the recipes for the dinner Halle made:

French Dip Sandwiches

1 loaf Italian bread (in grocer's bakery)

1 lb Roast Beef- I had them cut it paper thin

Italian seasoning packet

Butter

Provolone cheese

Beef Boulion cubes

Slice loaf of bread in half. Smear butter on inside of both pieces of bread. Sprinkle Italian seasoning over bread. Stick on pan and broilon Low for 1-2 min or until a little crispy- really keep an eye on them. Remove from oven. Add roast beef and cheese to each half. Broil again for 1-2 min or until heated all the way through. Put both halves together, cut, and serve warm. *I wrapped my sandwiches in aluminun foil and put back in oven (turned off) to let stay warm.

Use Beef Boulion (directions on package) to make au jus sauce for dipping.

Pasta Salad

1 pkg. Tri-color pasta noodles

Cheese, cut into cubes

Cherry Tomatoes, cut in half

Onion, chopped finely

Broccoli, cut in pieces

Italian dressing

Cook pasta as directed. Drain. Add all other ingredients- add as much or as little of veggies as you like. Pour Italian dressing over top, cover, and refrigerate until serving.

Strawberries

Buy strawberries at store. Cut in half. Sprinkle with sugar.

Root Beer Floats

1/2 gallon of Vanilla icecream

1 2 liter of Root Beer- A & W is the best!

Scoop icecream into glasses. Pour root beer over top. Enjoy!

Spring Fashion

2009-02-24T10:29:00.003-05:00

I am in no way a person who stays up with fashion or someone who dresses really trendy. I always think people that are always look cute (most of the time), but I feel like I am trying way too hard when I dress super trendy. So, I usually keep to the basics. My closet is full of solid colored tops and bottoms, with a few fun things thrown in there somewhere.

I think the 2009 Fashion Show Week (where all the big time designers show off their spring line) was just a couple of weeks ago. I only know this because I read the magazines at the chckout line at Kroger and look at all the pictures of what's "in style". I have been shopping almost every weekend to get ready for our trip to Florida this spring, so I've begun to see the new clothes for spring start hitting the shelves.

While shopping, I have noticed what the Spring Fashion is like, and I'm not so sure I'm liking it.

Neon- Who looks good in neon colors? Yikes! We're back in the 80s!

Bohemian- I could probably wear a few bohemian items..Some things I like better than othersSkinny Jeans- the only people these look good on have legs like these models...pencil legs...definitely not me!

Dresses- I love it! I really want a white dress too!!

Jean-shorts/carpris/jackets/vests/skirts- I like most jean items...not so much the vest though...

Jump Suits- Anyone with a long torso (me) would be picking a wedgie all day long if they wore these

Shoulder pads- Absolutley NO!!! I don't think there has ever been a shirt that looks good with shoulder pads...These models even look ridiculous!

Scarves- I love them!!! The look cute with solid tees, jean jackets, dresses....

So, there it is...Spring Fashion...We will be seeing it all over store's shelves and on the streets...I will try to branch out a little and get a few "instyle" things, but I will probably resort back to a lot of my basics...I'm hoping Fall Fashion is more my style...Whatever that is!!

Friday Frenzy

2009-02-20T22:13:00.003-05:00

My Friday started off in a frenzy. I will start this story from the beginning so that it all makes sense. I have a small planner that I keep in my purse that has all my scheduled work days written in. (Sidenote: I am a substitute teacher right now until I can find a real teaching job, but I am VERY thankful to have a job, even if it is just subbing) I have gotten to know a lot of teachers in the Lapeer schools, so many of them request me weeks in advance, so my weeks usually get filled up quickly. I sub 5 days a week, every week (which is a huge blessing because most subs only get called a couple times a week). Well, last night I was telling Brad that I did not have anything scheduled for Friday(today), which just means I would be getting a 5am call in the morning to go an assigned school (there are always lots of teachers who take Fridays off). I will admit that I felt a little weird last night going to bed and even thought about quickly checking my planner to make sure I had nothing written down, but I could have sworn that I had checked it earlier and nothing was written in. So, I went to bed with the anticipation of the 5am call. 5am rolled around and then 6 and there was no call, so I figured I was going to have the day off today. When you work all 5 school days every week, it just seems weird to not have to work. At 7:05, Brad woke up and I felt like something was wrong, so I asked him to get me my planner. I opened it and my heart stopped. I DID have an assignment at Lapeer East High School. I jumped out of bed barely able to breath because by this time is was 7:10am and school starts at 7:25!!! Yes, that's only 15 minutes!! I should have already been to school by this time! Have you ever had that feeling before where you have either overslept or gotten behind and are going to be late to something important?? I was freaking out!! I rushed to the computer to look up the school's number, called them and explained that I was going to be a few minutes late (yikes!) and rushed around getting myself ready. Thank heavens that I take my shower at night and every Friday is casual day so I could wear jeans. Brad was sweet enough to iron my shirt for me and I threw my hair into a ponytail. I barely put any make-up on. Brad quickly ran upstairs to start the car for me, grab me a few granola bars and got me a water bottle ready. He was SO sweet!!

Thankfully, Lapeer East is exactly 5 minutes away from where we live, so I didn't have far to drive. I made it to the school and was walking into the office at 7:35!!! I was quite proud of myself for getting there only 10 minutes after school had started. They had gotten another teacher to come in and sit with the students until I got there.
I don't think it was until 1st hour was almost over (1st hr ends at 8:35) that my heart stopped racing. The rest of my day went smoothly, but it sure started out in quite a frenzy. I have learned my lesson though. I will always check my planner before going to bed every night just so that I don't make this same mistake again.

I thought this cartoon was pretty cute!

My Valentine

2009-02-17T12:05:00.007-05:00

My Valentine is my wonderful husband, Brad. We have been with each other for the last 9.5 years (married 7.5 of those). It's hard to imagine what my life would be without him in it. On our Valentine's Day date, we actually talked about how different our lives would have been if he had gone away to college (he was supposed to go to Cedarville University on a soccer scholarship) and I would have stayed home to attend U of M-Flint. Would we have stayed together? Would we have met different people and married them? We wondered where we would be in our lives right now. Although it's interesting to assume what might have happened, we are so glad we are together and we know that God was in control of everything then (and now too), knowing what was best for us. I love Brad with all my heart!!! I can't say we've had the perfect marriage (but who has?) because we sure have had our trip down some bumpy roads, but we've stuck it out together and grown stronger in our relationship. We've made a lot of great memories with each other and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the whole world. He is my best friend and the love of my life.
This past weekend we celebrated Valentine's Day without our kids on Sunday afternoon. We had planned to go out then because we didn't want to have to fight any crowds at restaurants and at the movies on Saturday. Plus, I found this awesome coupon for B1G1 free at Bargain Shopper Lady, but it wasn't good on Valentine's Day. So, after church, we headed out to do a little shopping, eat dinner, and see a movie.

We went to Somerset Mall and just walked around for a couple hours. We didn't buy anything, but just enjoyed looking around without having to push a stroller or deal with fussy kids. It was extremely nice! We then went to eat at TGI Friday's (because of the coupon and we like the food) and had a nice dinner. After that, we went to the theater and saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic". I have read all the Shopaholic books, so I really wanted to see this movie. Brad was sweet enough to go and watch it with me, even though I know he would have much rather seen an action or suspense movie. He said he liked it though.

By the time it was over, it was 10pm, so we headed home. We didn't have school on Monday (yea!), so our kids were still up so we could hug and kiss them before going to bed.

Brad had also bought me this beautiful bouquet of roses on Saturday.

All in all, it was a very nice Valentine's! I loved spending time with my one true Valentine!! I love you Brad!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T20:25:00.006-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!!Today was full of Valentine's parties, dinners, and treats! Our family celebrated the holiday a day early!!

Halle had her Valentine's Day party at school this afternoon. I couldn't make it up there because I had to work, but they had cookies (which we provided), candy, and the kids passed out their Valentines to each other. Halle passed out these really cool Valentine's. They were made of foam and you could put glitter all over them and stick on other foam stickers. They turned out really cute!

(Blogger kept turning these pictures vertically everytime I uploaded them, so I gave up and kept them this way-if you know how to make that not happen, please let me know)

This afternoon after work, I ran to Wal-Mart and picked up a couple of really cute Valentine's baskets for my kiddies. I had to get my 2 BIG loves a little something for the holiday!!!

This was Halle'sThis was Parker'sThey both were really excited to get something special for V-Day! They both carried around their baskets with their stuffed animal in it the rest of the evening.

Dad D. came home tonight with his hands full of flowers for all the girls. He got me a vase full of white and pink carnations, Jess a single long stem rose, Halle a mini teddy bear holding a vase with 3 mini roses, and Mom a big teddy bear holding a vases of roses!!! It was such a surprise!!!
Here's mine
Here's Halle's
Here was our table for dinner!! Mom D. bought everyone cards, so we opened them before we ate. We made tacos and corn bread for dinner! It tasted so good!!

We had a great evening celebrating this fun holiday!!! Brad and I are planning on going out Sunday night (we don't have school on Monday!!!) to celebrate together!! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones.

Friendship Award

2009-02-10T22:21:00.005-05:00

My sweet friend, Betsy, honored me with this "Friends" award today!

This is what the award is for:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find friends and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships will be propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly- written text into the body of their award."

I am passing this along to a couple of people who were real life friends with me at some point in time, but now we stay in touch through our blogs:

Christy

Stacey

Suzanne

Riding Horses

2009-02-07T23:56:00.003-05:00

We've had a heat wave up here the last 2 days!!! It's been in the 40's and everyone has been ecstatic!! I mean, people are breaking out their shorts for this warm weather!!! When you haven't been above 20 degrees in over a couple months, 40 does seem warm...Well, we didn't break out our summer clothes, but we did get out Oreo, and Halle and Parker went riding a couple days this week.

Parker absolutely loved riding. He didn't want to get off!He's not looking too happy that Halle has to ride with him

Oreo, Brad, Parker, and HalleI forgot to take any pictures of Halle riding by herself, but she is doing extremely well!!! We're considering entering her into some horse competitions this spring/summer. Brad did it while he was growing up, and we know Halle would enjoy getting dolled up and showing off a horse in competition. She just needs to keep practicing.

You will notice that we still have many inches worth of snow on the ground and the kids are still wearing their snow gear!!! It's still winter here (boo-hoo), but boy do we wish spring would get here soon!!

Crafts with Halle

2009-02-06T09:41:00.008-05:00

A few posts ago I mentioned that Halle is totally and completely into doing crafts. I think my exact words were "she would do a craft everyday if I would get on the ball and plan some to do". Well, I was quite proud of myself yesterday for finding a Valentine's Day craft, going to the craft store and buying the materials, and actually sitting down with Halle and doing it. She was completely flabbergasted that I actually had a fun craft to do. I think I might have earned a few "Cool Mom" points yesterday with her!! Yea for me!!!

I found this really cool and easy Valentine's Day Wreath craft to do on another blog Little Birdie Secrets. It really is very easy and quite inexpensive to do. I paid $4 for the heart shaped styrofoam and only $1.75 for the Valentine's Day fabric. If you want the directions, you can find them at Little Birdie's Easy Valentine's Wreath.

Here's our Valentine's Day Wreath:

A few nights before making our wreath, we finally opened one of Halle's birthday presents and used it. She got the Easy-Bake Decorating Pen and a whole bunch of cake mixes, frostings, cake decorations and an apron from her aunts and uncles. They know how much she loves to do crafts and bake obviously!!! Well, we made chocolate cupcakes and then spent a long time using the pen to decorate all our cupcakes.

This is the pen and all the utensils that come with it

Parker kept sneaking frosting while we were decorating

A few of Halle's creations

Halle's First Place Poster

2009-02-05T10:14:00.004-05:00

Halle took 1st place on her poster for the Lapeer Conservation District Poster Contest this past fall. There were over 1,000 posters entered for grades K-12, and Halle's took 1st place in the K-1st grade category. Her poster went to the regionals, but did not place. We were SO proud of her!!! You can go see all the winning posters here.
Way to go Halle!!!!

Super Bowl Sunday

2009-02-02T11:20:00.002-05:00

The other day while I was on the way to work, the guys on the radio were talking about how we aren't supposed to call it the "Super Bowl" anymore, but to call it "The Big Game". I hadn't heard anything about it until then, but thought it was kind of funny. Why would you call it anything other than the Super Bowl?? I mean, it wouldn't even sound right if you called it something other than that. "The Big Game Sunday" or "The Big Game Party"...It doesn't have that same ring that "Super Bowl Sunday or Party" has.Anyways...We had our Super Bowl party last night! It was just a small group and was very low-key. We made homemade pizzas and salad and had hot fudge cream puffs for dessert. Although I am not a huge football fan, I did choose to root for the Arizona Cardinals because they were the underdog and because I have family that lives in AZ.

In the past I have only ever watched the game to see the commercials. I know companies spend millions of dollars for just a few seconds worth of air time during the game (30 seconds= $3 million this year) and it is exciting to see what they come up with. I thought this year's commercials were some of the best ever. We laughed on quite a few of them. One of my favorite's was the Bridgestone Tire with the Potato Heads. It was really cute!!! We also got our 3-D glasses and watched the commercials in 3-D. We all thought they could have been a little better, but we liked the SoBe Lifewater one the best.

I watched the majority of the game this year (which is a 1st for me- I usually only last 1-2 quarters). I did fall asleep a little in the beginning, but towards the end, the game got really exciting, so I watched. I was hoping for a Cardinal win (and they almost had it), but the Steelers pulled through and got that last touchdown to win it!! Although my team lost, it was still a really good game!!!

I didn't watch the Half-Time concert, but from what I've heard, it wasn't anything great!! I did LOVE Jennifer Hudson's National Anthem...Oh. my. word...It gave me chills.

Overall, I thought this year's Super Bowl was one of my favorites overall. Good food, good times, good game, and good commercials...Couldn't ask for much better than that.

Working out for Florida

2009-01-30T09:38:00.003-05:00

Working out/exercising is a pain in the booty- literally and figuratively speaking. Not only does it take up time throughout your day (at night for me), but it also wears you out, makes you sweat, and leaves you with that "achy muscles" feeling the next morning.

Even after all of that though, I guess the benefits of doing it outweigh everything else and so I put myself through it anyways. I have been working out 5-6 times a week for 1/2 hour every night (after the kids go to bed). Dad D. went out and bought the family an elliptical machine, so we set up a whole exercising room upstairs. We brought the BowFlex up and got a tv hooked in so we could have something to watch while we worked out. They also have a treadmill, but we couldn't set that up because Brad's aunt is borrowing it. We made ourselves our own little gym.

Every night I do a 20-30 minute fitness program on the elliptical machine, then sit-ups, leg lifts, and other random things with the Bowflex. I have really been pushing myself every night so that I can tone up my body, lose a few pounds, and get a little muscle.

Although those are the main reasons for my working out, the BIG reason for all my hard work is so that I will look decent in a bathing suit when we go to Florida. I have casually mentioned our upcoming trip to the great state of FL, but haven't expanded on it at all. That will all come in another post. However, I will leave you with a few pictures of where we are going!!

Hammock Beach Resort, Palm Coast, FL

What's New with Parker and Halle

2009-01-29T09:53:00.008-05:00

What's new with my two kiddies?? Well, quite a bit has changed with them lately, but one thing stays the same- they keep me really busy!!!
Halle
* Is in a 2nd grade reading level at school (she's in 1st grade)
* Is starting gymnastics lessons this Saturday
* Is already into the 2nd level book in her piano (she just started lessons this school year)
* LOVES to do crafts/make food- she could honestly do a craft everyday if I would get on the ball and plan some crafts to do
* Weighs about 50 lbs; wears size 7-8 girls in clothes
* Wears a headband everyday to school (it doesn't require a lot of work, so she resorts to it)
* Has two good friends- Kate (at school) and Bailey (her cousin)
* Her favorite color is blue these days
* Misses North Carolina a ton- she talks about it a lot and wishes she still lived there
* Has already gotten a whole bunch of new clothes for our trip to Florida (I haven't gotten anything)

Parker
* Does not use his bottle to go to bed anymore
* Eats! Eats! Eats! He must be growing because he is constantly eating
* Says "No", "Da" "Eye" (while he points to your eye), "Ma", and all the different sounds animals make very clearly now. He won't say "horse", but will say "neigh" when describing animals.
* LOVES football, even though we aren't in football season any longer
* Loves to read books...He would do it all day if we had enough time to just sit and read
* Is attached to his dad...I'm chopped liver when it comes to choosing between Mom or Dad...oh well
*Weighs about 25 lbs and is off the charts in height (still)
* Wears 18 mo. clothes
* Is attached to his blankets- maybe more than he is to his dad- If he sees his blankets, he must have it/them in his hands. He is usually carrying around 2-3 blankets at a time
*Has lots of teeth and more are coming in now...They make for the sweetest smile ever!!!

Brad's New Job

2009-01-26T23:27:00.003-05:00

The exciting news of this past weekend was that Brad got hired as the Director of Business Development for the Michigan Bucks soccer team. They are a minor league team that play in the Detroit area. Brad is going to be in charge of finding sponsors for everything that happens at the games/camps/etc. It is a great job because he can work around his school schedule and it is not a real stressful job, but hopefully will make us a little extra money!! Today was his first day. He got to learn the ropes and set up his office. The facility that the Bucks play in is amazing!! Can you believe there are 3 full size outdoor soccer fields inside this building??
We are excited that Brad was given this opportunity and looking forward to all the new things he will learn and become involved in. Brad has always loved and played soccer, so this job is perfect for him. Pray for him that all goes well and that he will stay up on his school work!!

Praying for Harper

2009-01-20T23:41:00.003-05:00

Many of my blogging friends already know all about the Stamps and their baby girl, Harper, but for those of you who don't know, I would just ask that you pray for this family. I have never met them and only know them through Kelly's Korner (their blog), but they are the sweetest couple who struggled to get pregnant for a long time. We have all been counting down the days with Kelly until she gave birth to her little girl. After Harper was born this past weekend, they realized something was wrong with her lungs. She is in the NICU and will stay there for quite a few weeks. They have set up a blog especially for prayer for Harper here.

Weekend in Grand Rapids

2009-01-20T22:44:00.004-05:00

This past weekend was filled with lots of fun! Everything started on Friday. First, we got an extra day to our long weekend because it was too cold to go to school on Friday. So, we got to sleep in and relax all day on Friday. We did go and see "Mall Cop", which was really funny! On Friday night we met up with my family at Olive Garden to celebrate Halle's birthday and Allyson's birthday. Al's birthday is on Jan 18-just 8 days after Halle's. Since my mom was out of town around Halle's birthday, we hadn't had a chance to celebrate with them yet. Olive Garden is Allyson's favorite restaurant so that was the place she wanted to go for her birthday dinner!! We all had good food and our waiter was really good, which made for a nice birthday dining experience.
Al and Hal opened their gifts at the restaurant

I got Al this really cute orange purse- She liked it!!
After eating, we all headed back to my parent's house and Halle played with the gifts that she got-"Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago" computer game (sidenote: I had this same game as a kid and loved it...I also really wanted to be on the Carmen Sandiago tv show back in the day), Coloring books, and the Human Body game with a working stethoschope (from Andy). The rest of us played Scattergories and we all ate cake and ice cream!!

Al and Hal blowing out the candles on the cake

Mom and the Birthday girl

Me and Allyson

Parker getting cozy with Amber

The group

Me and Brad

Me, My brother-Andy, My sister- Allyson

Saturday morning we got up and headed to Grand Rapids, MI. It is about 2 hours away from where we live on the west side of the state. Brad's aunt and uncle live there, so we went to see them and see their new house (they actually moved into it a year or so ago, but we haven't had a chance to see it until now). Brad's parents went the night before so they didn't have to drive through the snow storm like us. Thankfully, we made it safely, even though we saw a lot of cars in the ditch or in accidents on our way there.

Their house is really nice. Just picture a Potterybarn catalog and that's what their house looks like. I totally forgot to take any pictures, but you get the idea. Everything was super organized and decorated so nicely.

When we first got there, we made homemade French Dip sandwiches (Brad's fav) and snacks. Then all the girls took off and went to Rockford, which is only 10-15 minutes away from where they lived. It's a cute little town with a bunch of different shops. We only went to a couple stores because we didn't have a lot of time and it was snowing like crazy. We went to The War Chest, which is a really awesome shop. It is owned by missionaries who go around the world and buy women out of sex slavery and give them a chance at a free life. They teach the women a trade, such as making jewelry, so that they can provide for themselves and their kids. The jewelry is beautiful and their stories are so awesome!!! We all got some jewelry and I will definitely go back again and get some more. We also went to a store called Jade, which has a bunch of neat clothes, purses, etc. I got a bright yellow shirt for when we go to Florida.

Saturday evening we just played games back at their house. Some good friends of theirs came over, so it was nice to get to know them as well. They are really trying to get Brad and I to move over there!!! It is a nice place to live, so we'll just have to see....

On Sunday, we went to their church, Blythefield Hills Baptist Church. It was really nice! Afterwards, we all went to Logan's for lunch! We sat with Nate and his girlfriend, Lisa. My stomach was really upset, so I honestly didn't enjoy the lunch at all. I wanted to eat, but I just couldn't. We headed back home afterwards and spent the evening relaxing!!!

It was a very enjoyable and fun weekend. We were glad we were able to make it over to Uncle Chip and Aunt Sharon's house and see them and their kids while we were there. They are a sweet family and hopefully we can get back over to that side of the state again this summer.

Halle's Birthday, Part 2

2009-01-11T22:44:00.004-05:00

Today we celebrated Halle's birthday with the DeLange and Williams families. Every year I let her decide which meal she wants and what theme she wants her party to be. This year she picked homemade macaroni n' cheese and punch, and the theme was Hello Kitty. We bought Hello Kitty plates, tableclothes, napkins, and got a bunch of balloons and pink and white streamers. I made homemade mac 'n cheese, corn, rolls, bananas and oranges, and salad.

This was a board I had made just for fun, but Halle wanted to put it up at her party... Can't say I know how to draw Hello Kitty very well....

I also made Hello Kitty cupcakes. I think they turned out pretty cute!Halle opened up her gifts from the DeLanges. She got the Wii Mario Cart game and 8 weeks of gymnastics lessons!!! She is pretty excited to start that!!Bailey (her cousin and best friend) got her make-up and a big coloring board.

I can't believe Halle is already 7!!!! These years are flying by way too fast!!! These past 7 years have been absolutely great with Halle!! She brings me so much joy! Happy 7th Birthday Halle!!! I love you lots!!!!

Halle's Birthday Part 1

2009-01-10T23:38:00.006-05:00

To begin our celebration of Halle's 7th birthday, we decided to take her to Splash Village in Frankenmuth, MI (it's only about 30 minutes from where we live). We got all packed up and ready to go Thursday night so that we could leave right after Halle got out of school on Friday. On Friday, I had to work, so Brad took up McDonald's and ate lunch with Halle at school. He also took up cookies for everyone in her class. She was so excited to have him there. Halle also wore a "Birthday Girl" sash to school on Friday. Once school got out, we took off to Splash Village. We have been there before, so we were all geeked up about all the fun we were going to have.

Halle in her sash

We spent about 3 hours at the waterpark on Friday. Around 7ish, we were all starting to get hungry. Seeing as how it's snowy and freezing here, we had absolutely no deisre to go anywhere out of the hotel, so we got dressed and went down to the restaurant at the hotel. There wasn't hardly anyone there, so it was nice and quiet and relaxing. All of our food was good and Halle got a blue slushie as her birthday dessert. We had planned to go back to the room and watch a movie, but Halle opened up her birthday presents from us and then played with them the rest of the evening. We were all pretty tired and were in bed and sleeping by 10:30- which is super early for Brad and me.

Here's part of the park

At dinner

Halle opening up her presents in the hotel room-Parker wanted to helpShe got a disco ball!!

And of course, the blessed HSM 3 cd!!

On Saturday, we went to McD's for breakfast. Parker was hilarious because he was SO hungry. He kept stuffing his face full of food. I think he ate more than Brad. Halle ate all of her meal too!!! I guess all the swimming made them hungry. We then went back to the hotel and played in the waterpark for about 4 hours. Halle loved everything there! She was going non-stop!!!!

Parker wanted to play basketball in the pool the entire timeHalle going down on the slidesBrad and Parker
Halle enjoyed running across on the slippery lily pads...here she took a spill

Halle went down the 2 big waterslides a TON of times! They are super fun!We came back home mid-afternoon, went out to eat with the DeLanges, and then Halle went to see "Bedtime Stories" with Brad's parents and Jess. I made Hello Kitty cupcakes and got all the groceries bought for tomorrow's party (Halle's Birthday Part 2- look for that on tomorrow's blog).

Everyone had a blast at Splash Village!!! Halle couldn't stop talking about it all week long!! She counted down the days until we went! It was such a nice way to celebrate her birthday this year!!! We had so much fun, it might become a new birthday tradition!!!

Rodeo

2009-01-07T09:39:00.007-05:00

We spent the last day of our Christmas vacation by going to a rodeo at The Palace. We had our family church service early Sunday morning and then headed down. The Haggadones met us at the house and carpooled with us down there.

We got there a little early so that we could take the kids down into the arena and let them see the bulls, horses, calfs, etc. We also got to meet the clown that does all the entertaining throughout the rodeo and meet one of the bull chasers- they are the men who try to get the bulls out of the arena after they have bucked off the rider. Halle has gone to a rodeo before, but this was Parker's first time. He LOVED it!!! I have never seen him sit so still and just watch everything for so long. The rodeo was 2.5 hours long and he never made a peep!! He loves horses and animals though so I wasn't that surprised. Halle loved it too! She and Parker both got a lariat to play with.

On the way home we stopped at Red Knapps to eat a late lunch/early dinner. The Haggadones ate with us too! We all got burgers and I got one of my favorite things- deep fried pickles! Once we got home we all took a long nap. It was SO nice!!! I think some of us got a mild case of food posioning though because Brad, Mr. H, and I all had stomach aches Sunday evening. It was really weird!

Our Christmas vacation was SO nice-probably the best one we've had yet. It was just so relaxing and slow paced. The rodeo was a great way to end the vacation.

Christmas Vacation

2008-12-22T23:26:00.002-05:00

Our Christmas vacation started a day early this year because Michigan is getting dumped on with snow, so we had a "snow day" on the Friday before the vacation really started. It was really nice to get a jump-start on everything we needed to get done.
We have just really begun our vacation and it has been so relaxing and great! We have slept in, watched cartoons in our pj's, made candy and cookies, played in the mounds of snow, shopped, stayed up late watching dumb Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel, played video games, and wrapped presents.
Everyone is home from school so it has been nice hanging out with our brothers and sisters that we don't get to see during the school semesters.
A few highlights from this past weekend:
1. On Saturday, Mom D, Jess, and I all went down to Great Lakes Crossing to do a little shopping. It was unbelievably busy!!! I mean, we figured it would be busy considering it was the weekend before Christmas, but we weren't expecting that busy! It took us 30 minutes to get from Target to the mall- and they are only 2 miles away from each other!!! and then we couldn't find a parking spot at the mall!!! We ended up leaving and getting stuck in traffic again thanks to a mall security guard who was trying to direct traffic and had absolutely NO clue what he was doing!! Let's just say he made a whole lot of people really mad, including us!!
2. On Sunday night, I played the piano in the Hadley Community Church cantata. I accompanied their choir in 3 songs. The choir director is Halle's piano teacher and a good friend of ours, so she asked if I would play. It was actually really nice to have something to practice and the cantata went really well!!!
3. Jessica is getting new flooring in her bedroom. They pulled out all her soft, white carpet and put in hardwood flooring. Well, actually it's that stuff that looks like wood, but it's not. Brad, Dad D, and Scott all worked on it this weekend. I will take a pic tomorrow as it is a huge mess in there right now!
I have enjoyed our vacation so much already and we haven't even gotten to Christmas yet!! I hope you are having a wonderful vacation as well!

25 things I love about Christmas

2008-12-14T23:05:00.007-05:00

During the month of December on the Hallmark channel or abc Family (I can't remember which one now), they have the "25 Days of Christmas", which is 25 days in a row where they play a Christmas movie at night. They usually have no-name actors, have some sort of Christmas drama where they try to get a tear out of ya, and it usually works, even though you are sitting there asking yourself "Why am I wasting my time watching this?" Anyways, as bad as they are, we have been watching them most nights, so I thought I would follow along and do my own 25 things I love about Christmas!

1. We celebrate Christ's birth 2. Christmas trees- nothing beats the smell of a real Christmas tree 3. Christmas tree ornaments- we each get a new one every year 4. Christmas music everywhere- at home, in the car, in stores, at church 5. Christmas cookies-nothing beats sugar cookie dough

6. Christmas homemade candy- can't have a Christmas without chocolate dipped goodies and turtles

7. Christmas cards- I look forward to getting cards/pictures in the mail- this is ours. I couldn't get it to copy both the border and picture together, so if you didn't get one in the mail, you will just have to picture what it looks like put together!

8. Christmas parties- nothing beats a bunch of food, family/friends, and holiday cheer all in one place at one time9. Christmas shopping

10. Christmas presents-it's fun to get, but it's more fun to give

11. Christmas stockings- it's so much fun to stuff them full with little trinkets and candy

12. Christmas wrapping paper- isn't it SO pretty

13. Christmas shopping after Christmas- gotta spend all that money you just got

14. Waking up early on Christmas morning

15. Reading the Christmas story (not this book exactly- but the story in Luke 2)

16. Watching classic Christmas movies- White Christmas, The Grinch, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Polar Express

17. Watching people open their gifts- I don't like to be watched when I'm opening a gift though...

18. Playing Christmas music on the piano

19. Going to Bronner's Christmas Store

20. Eating Candy Canes

21. Christmas vacation

22. Playing stupid Christmas party games/White elephant gift giving23. New Christmas pj's to wear on Christmas Eve

24. The excitement on Christmas morning

25. Christmas decorations- I love having a house totally decorated for the season

In Loving Memory

2008-12-12T10:26:00.004-05:00

On Thursday, December 4, 2008, Grandma "Betty" Park (Brad's grandma) went to be with the Lord. She has been suffering from Lou Gehrig's Disease for the last three years. She has been with Hospice for the last few months in her home, so we knew it was only a matter of time. Most of her children, their spouses, and grandchildren were all able to see her and spend some time with her before she passed away. Although everyone is sad and will miss her sweet giggle and smile, we are so happy she is finally home and is no longer suffering. It's amazing the peace the Lord has given her family throughout everything. Grandma loved to play games! Ever since I came into the family 8 years ago, I don't remember a family gathering without playing games with her. She LOVED to play!! She also made really good food, LOVED anything sweet, and always made sure there were Tootsie Rolls at her house when I came over to visit. She always wore the cutest clothes (not the old "grandmaish" looking clothes) and was into buying jewelry. She loved the Lord and served Him in countless ways. Her favorite hymn was "Amazing Grace" (which was sung at her funeral), and she loved listening to her grandchildren sing. She enjoyed going to all her 17 grandchildren's sports games, concerts, etc. and loved to hold babies. She was a sweet lady and I will miss her a lot too!

Here's her obituary:

PARK, BETTY JOAN; of Lapeer, formerly of Hazel Park; died Thursday, December 4, 2008; age 78. Betty attended Hazel Park Schools, graduating in 1948. She married Larry C. Park, her high school sweetheart, on December 28, 1950 in Hazel Park. Larry and Betty chose to live and work in Hazel Park. Betty was a Hazel Park Schools bus driver for 10 years, retiring in 1991. Betty loved her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and served Him faithfully daily with Bible Study and by avoiding any limelight, her bottom line was to serve the Lord and service to others. Upon retirement, they moved to Lapeer, joining the families of their three youngest children, enjoying the Thumb Area. Surviving is her beloved husband Larry of Lapeer; dear children Mrs. Kitty (Philip) McMillen, Mr. Russ (Sandy) Park, Mrs. Micky (Ed) DeLange, Mr. Marty (Linda) Park, Mrs. Mindy (Kelly) Williams; 17 grandchildren; 3 great grandchildren; and brother-in-law Donald J. (Phyllis) Park; preceded in death by parents Mr. andMrs. Emmett Dunlap. Visitation 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Sunday. Funeral Services Monday, December 8, 2008 11 a.m. at Muir Brothers Funeral Home, 1021 South Main, Lapeer (810) 664-8111. Rev. Maynard H. Belt officiating. Burial Christian Memorial

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-02T21:19:00.009-05:00

I'm quite behind on my blog, but we have been extremely busy around here lately. Brad's grandma is in her last stages on life, so things have been different, strange, and busy every night.
Even though we are all sad about Grandma, our Thanksgiving weekend was packed full of food, family, and fun! The week leading up to Thanksgiving was pretty low-key, which was nice. We really didn't do a whole lot, except make food for Thursday's meals. On Thursday, we had a nice brunch with the DeLanges and Williams. We had Honey Baked ham and turkey, overnight omelet, cheesy hashbrowns, warm apples, sweet potatoes, jello, apple pie and cookies. Everything was delicious!!! Dad D. talked about Thanksgiving and read Abraham Lincoln's "Declaration of Thanksgiving" before we ate. It's amazing how great of a writer/speaker Lincoln was and how his priorities were so godly. The brunch was a nice start to our day. We sat around for a couple hours, just relaxing, looking at store ads, and watching football before we headed off to my parent's house for an afternoon dinner. My mom had a turkey, stuffing, jello, corn, rolls, cheesy carrots, salad, pies, and pumpkin cheesecake. Everything tasted great even though I didn't eat a whole lot because I was still stuffed from earlier. Bailey ended up coming with us to play with Halle, so we didn't see them hardly at all. We all played the Wii and watched "Elf". My cousin, Lauren, was in town from college. It was nice to see her too.

Parker and Halle watching tv in their baskets!Brunch at the DeLange'sTable

Playing the Wii at my parent's house- my grandma even played!

Halle and Me

Me, Mom, Allyson

Halle and Bailey getting ready to watch "Elf"

Parker looking sweet even though he has stains on his shirtFriday started at 5:00am for me. I was up and getting ready to stand in line at Target when they opened at 6am. My mom and sister met up with me right as I was walking into the store. We got everything we wanted to get, which was nice. We always go Black Friday shopping, so we are used to the crowds. There's something exhilarating about standing in lines and fighting crowds to get a good deal. I will never forget the year Brad went with us to get a camera at Circuit City. It was so jam packed in the store no one could move. Brad ended up getting everything he wanted while we went over to Target. Even though it was crazy, it was so fun!

I got the kids a few specific things they wanted for Christmas at Target. We then headed to Old Navy and then to Tim Horton's for a quick breakfast snack. We usually always go out of town to do our "mall" shopping, so we headed down to Lakeside (in Utica-about 1 hour away). We shopped at the mall for a couple hours, ate at Panera Bread for lunch, and stopped at Marshall's before heading home. By 4pm we were exhausted!!!

Friday evening Brad's Uncle Chip, Aunt Sharon, Taylor, Nathan, and Lisa all came over to spend the night. They live in Grand Rapids, MI (which is about 2 hours away). The guys all played Acquire, which is a game about investing in stock and selling companies. I have never played it, so I really don't know much more about it than that. The girls all talked and went to bed early.

Saturday all the girls went shopping at Great Lakes Crossing. Aunt Mindy went with us too. While we were shopping, the guys all played Marshmallow War with marshmallow guns made out of piping, and shot their real guns at clay pigeons.

Saturday evening we headed up to Bronner's Christmas Store in Frankenmuth with my family. Bronner's is the World's Largest Christmas Store- I would believe it!! It is huge and has absolutley everything Christmas there is.We always go there every year and get an ornament for the tree for that year. Usually we try to pick one that represents something from the past year. This year Brad got an ornament that looks like tool belt with tools in it because he started a remodeling company, I got a teacher ornament, even though I'm just a sub, Parker got a football ornament because he is totally infatuated with football, and Halle got a rainbow because she thought it was pretty. We went back to my parents and had pizza and watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" which is hilarious!On the way to Bronner's

Inside the store

Sunday we had church in the morning and then Scott, Al, Brad and I all went and saw "Australia". It is so good. I would definitely recommend it! It is a little long, but you don't realize it because you are so engrossed in the story. Definitely a Must-See!!!

Also, a couple times this weekend the kids all went out and got pulled around on sleds by the tractor. They had so much fun! Parker rode with the tractor driver and they hooked up 2 sleds for the kids. They had fun falling off, doing tricks, etc. I didn't go out this time, but maybe sometime later this winter I will get on and try it!

Corey, Bailey and Halle
The girls stayed on, but Chad and Corey kept falling off!

That was our weekend! Absolutely PACKED!!!! And to add on top of that, we got LOTS of snow all weekend long. Sunday night we got 6-8 inches!!!!

We were for sure planning on having a "snow day" on Monday, but even though over 200 schools closed, Lapeer didn't, so Jess and Halle had school. We were mad!!! We were hoping for a day to recoupe from our weekend.

Brad's grandma's health has deteriorated so quickly this week that it is only a matter of time now. We have been watching Chad, Corey, and Bailey every night this week, as Brad's mom and aunt want to be with their mom as much as possible. We haven't even got any Christmas decorations up yet and have no clue if we will ever get them up. Oh well. It's not that important considering the circumstances.

Vacation Day #1

2008-11-24T22:35:00.003-05:00

Today was the start of our week long vacation! Lapeer schools went to trimesters this year (instead of quarters or semesters), so it works out perfectly that the first trimester ends the week before Thanksgiving, allowing the kids to have a whole week off for Thanksgiving. Can you believe we've made it through 1/3 of the school year already?? It's going by fast.

Today we didn't do much. We are supposed to get quite a bit of snow over the next few days (3-6 inches by tomorrow afternoon). It started snowing this morning and so the kids went out and played for a while. Brad took them out and pulled them around in the sled and they built a snowman. It was great packing snow!! They played for about an hour or so.

Parker looks so cute all snuggled up in his snowsuit

Here's the snowman that they made. Halle put her hat and we got on old pink scarf on her.

Later this afternoon, Deena H. came over and did Mary Kay make-overs on Mom D, Jess, Halle, and me. We did the Microdermabrasion first (which makes your face feel a little raw, but smooth) and then she picked out colors for our make-up. Mary Kay products are very nice and Deena is such a sweet lady. She ended up staying all afternoon!!! I guess it takes that long to make us look good. :0) She even let Halle put a whole bunch of makeup on as well! Halle had a blast! We picked out some things we would like for Christmas. Why is it no one ever wants to buy themself makeup? I hate spending the money, even though I love how I look with it on. I do like getting it for a gift though. It seems every year I always ask for new makeup.

Halle, Me, Deena, Mom D, and Jess

We watched Dancing with the Stars tonight. I think Brooke and Derek won it with their free style dance. They did the best by far!!
Well, that was Vacation Day # 1. Can't wait to see what all Day # 2 holds for us!